Persuasive Essay On Chopsticks - 953 Words

Rough Draft: Forks [NEED BETTER TITLE] Just as his dad didn t require him to speak Japanese, my dad didn t require me to use chopsticks. Both must have decided at some point that passing along cultural heritage in these particular forms was too much of a hassle. Becoming familiar with other things, like literature in English, Calculus, Bob Dylan, Charlie Chaplin, and Baseball, took priority. Perhaps this is the process known as Americanization,† although both of them were already as â€Å"American† as they come well before I was born. Compared to the many important parenting decisions that would surely play a role in determining my identity, whether or not to train me on chopsticks at a young age was a barely noticeable fork in the road.†¦show more content†¦Why use a fork when eating with hands is both faster and cheaper? Contributing to its slow adoption, the fork also shared traits with the pitchfork or trident of the devil along with the connotation of the forked tongue, not exactly the epitome o f truthfulness that would be desired in an everyday object. By the 11th century some people had adopted the use of the fork (Goldsmith). However, its use was uncommon and its users were sometimes ridiculed for their seemingly unnecessary use. One princes is described by saying that â€Å"she deigned not to touch her food with her fingers, but would command her eunuchs to cut it up into small pieces, which she would impale on a certain golden instrument with two prongs and thus carry to her mouth (Goldsmith). Clearly at this time forks were not yet for everyone but only for a few of the upper class. Forks were not widely adopted until the industrial revolution which allowed the mass production of the silver plated utensils for all (Goldsmith). At this point many commoners could afford to not only own a fork but a whole set of silverware (Goldsmith). [NEED TO TIE HISTORY BACK TO POINTS] One might observe that while forks can scoop things up, they are designed for stabbing. They re g ood for separating solids from liquids, wrapping a tangle of noodles into a clump, plucking and poking to test the texture of something suspiciously foreign on a plate. With the help of a knife, they can be