Self-discovery and Understanding of World in Against Meat and Praise Essay

Self-discovery and Understanding of World in Against Meat and Praise of Self-deception - Essay Example Even with the improved capacity to conceive build and design sophisticated equipment, tame some of the wildest beasts the earth has ever known and even travel thousands of miles to the moon, a man seems not to understand his own functionalities. He seems increasingly confused in understanding the most complex machine evolution has provided; the brain. Although scientists at least have clues on how the brain process information, it has always been a dilemma on how the physical and the tangible aspects of the brain easily connect to aspects such as emotions and how the brain affects our decision-making processes. Perhaps the state of chaos and confusion that in most instance human beings conceal behind the mask of ambition, philanthropy, humanity or even religion is better explained by the artistic impressions of artists. The question is whether man has the capacity to find answers on his real self but opts not to, due to fear of what he might discover. Maybe the man is just not able t o self-discover and will in most instances carefully construct theories in an attempt to hide his ineptness in these matters. Using the â€Å"Broken Column† (Self-portrait) by Fridah Kahlo as the yardstick, the paper will conduct an analysis on two texts; â€Å"against meat† and â€Å"praise of self-deception.† The Self. ... The article â€Å"Against Meat† by Jonathan Safran is a narration about his battle with the commitment of being a vegetarian. Safran begins by outlining the initial concept that was nurtured in him concerning meat and how he experienced difficulties in converting to vegetarianism even after realizing the ills associated with meat. Safran learned at an early age from his grandmother that there was no kind of food that was bad and that most parts of food were to be eaten. Safran writes that: No foods are bad for you. Sugars are great. Fats are tremendous. The fatter a child is, the fitter it is — especially if it’s a boy. Safran also mentions that his grandmother had endured the 2nd World War surviving barely enough to eat and was even sometimes forced to scavenge for food remnants in dustbins. As a result, his grandmother’s obsession with food was particularly due to her past experiences with hunger. Then after that Safran learnt from his father that kickin g animals was not good, only for the father to flush a golden fish Safran received as a gift in the toilet. These instances together with the conversation he had with the baby sitter only served to disillusion Safran concerning the ills of eating meat. The disillusionment Safran felt was due to the fact that most people around him ate meat despite believing that eating meat is causing undue distress to animals. Safran admits that the disillusionment had profound impact on his life, that he found himself constantly making excuses to eat meat despite being a vegetarian. Safran proceeds to narrate a life where he hypocritically consoled himself that he had not caused any distress because he had not actually killed but was just consuming what had been killed by another.