Blog Entry #3 : The Founding Fathers

In the novel, “Fast Food Nation” by Eric Schlosser, Chapter one, “The Founding Fathers,” explains how fast food restaurants came to be in America. Schlosser illustrates numerous stories were told about how different men from different parts of the country all came to one place to reform their lives through fast food industries and how one man who started off with nothing rose up and became one of the most recognized men in the country. In the chapter, one man by the name of Carl Karcher was one of the men that changed the way people eat today. He went from being a farm-oriented guy to an ambitious guy who strived to success by leaving his home town and moving to a place where his dreams worked to their full potential.  After Karcher, more entrepreneurs decided to follow in Karcher’s footsteps and open up fast food franchises, including McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Also in the chapter, Schlosser explains the history behind the automobile industry and how this industry contributed to the fast food industry. The automobile industry influenced the fast food company to step up from hot dog stands to local drive ins for customers to feel at home while they were being served from their cars.  He explains that since the rise of automobiles, the fast food industry has flourished and the fast food companies expanded countrywide.  Later in the chapter, it explains how throughout the years Carl Karcher went in turmoil with the company due to the accusations from the government and how he coped with the situation. Karcher, despite the turmoil and the spiraling of his company, refused to give up and continued working with his company and eventually he reclaimed his title on top with McDonald’s and Wendy’s. Schlosser's idea in this chapter is to illustrate how men rose up to create the fast food industries that we eat at today and to explain the history of the major fast food companies came to be.