It is interesting how Jane sees herself as “American”, and her mother and Akiko do too, but to other people Jane is Japanese or Asian. Jane’s mother said, “Because I am so lucky to get my big, tough American baby like you” (Ozeki 313). Jane really is not the typical big and strong America baby, yet her mother sees her as very American. Akiko imagines Jane to be very “American.” She relates Jane to the song by Mr. Bobby Joe Creely. Akiko imagined Jane as “A woman who is carrying the straight razor” (Ozeki 313). Yet to people not from Japan Jane is just this Asian woman. The cowboy at the ranch bluntly stated, “Yup, these cows here’s goin straight to Japan, I heard they even eat the assholes and everything. Is that where y’alll from?”(Ozeki 266). The cowboy is simply generalizing, and stereotyping the crew’s ethnicity. He is ignorant to the fact that just because you look Japanese does not mean you are necessarily from there. In the beginning of the book, the old veteran insists that he knows where Jane is from. Just like the cowboy, he is stereotyping. Jane is being wise with him and is a bit frustrated. Finally, Jane blurts out in aggravation, “I… am… a… fucking… AMERICAN!” (Ozeki 11). As the book goes on this stereotyping does not seem to bother her. The cowboy at the farm says, “Well, that’s what Roy down at the packin’ plant told me. Straight to Japan, Taiwan, and Korea. You ask me, it’s a darn shame, wasting all that good American meat on a bunch of gooks. No offense” (Ozeki 267). Jane’s reply is “None taken” (Ozeki 267). The cowboy shows us how valued meat is in America, and how opposed he is to sharing it, even though he probably knows what harmful chemicals and being injected into the cows. It is America has this meat addiction. Jane’s response shows how she feels about racism and stereotyping. It seems that Jane herself never was really bothered by the fact that people classified her as a specific name. When her school friends call her, a “chink” she really thinks nothing of it. Ozeki never tells us if Jane ever finds out what it means, but she defiantly does not show us a reaction of disappointment. It seems that she finds interest in these kinds of stereotypes. She found the book she stole from the library to be interesting, she actually wanted to steal it. Jane said, “From time to I still pore over its stained, chamois-soft pages, satisfying my documentarian’s prurient interest in the primary sources of the past” (Ozeki 154). Maybe like the chemicals in the meat, Jane knows it is hurtful and cruel, but she just ignores it simply because that is the way things are. I feel that meat helps and destroys some of the characters in the book. The meat show saves Akiko’s life, and has great influences on some people, but at the same meat and possibly the meat accident destroyed Jane’s dream of having a baby. The meat show also destroyed Gale’s and John’s job and future. Meat and the show affected people in different way throughout the story.
