According to the book Frozen in time, written by Mark Kurlansky, it shows me the
life story of a peculiar person with his strange name, Clarence Birdseye. He
discovers how to frozen food and does a lot to make the fridge. People can even
see the brand, “Bird eye”, in the frozen area in supermarkets now. He’s odd,
not just because of his name, but his asocial personality and ideas not that
easy for people to support. For me, if I were in that time period, I would
never think of anything about the frozen food. For something that is the most
attractive for me, it’s his life story after he drops college because of having
no money.
Kurlasky himself had tried many jobs such
as chef, journalism, a fisherman, a dockworker and a paralegal. As a result,
the character in his pen is a little bit similar as himself; Birdseye has
worked as a chef and a hunter. He has 7 siblings, which makes a big family, and
it makes him family has financial problems to afford him all the fees to go to
college. There are so many ways for a person who doesn’t finish college to
survive, but his has chosen a difficult one, go to west. As the book says,
“Birdseye was not looking for financial security. He was looking for adventure.
And where did you find adventure in 1909? Out west.”(Kurlansky P.21) I really
like his spirit of finding adventure; it makes my blood burning and can’t wait
to see his adventure story.
After he goes to west, he’s life is even
different to others that go to west. Actually, the western part in America that
time is so far as to survive, but he easily fits in that hard environment and
starts to hunt. While other people are worried about how to get food, “Bob
Birdseye wasn’t worried and went off to find dinner. He gathered field mice,
chipmunks, gophers, and even a few pack rats, which he carefully skinned and
gutted before wrapping them all in cheesecloth.” (Kurlansky P.24) Because of
his unsatisfied on the food he hunt and the easily decay of food, his
experience carry forward his business of frozen food and his invention of the
freezing stuffs. These experiences and the learning of cooking are the basis
that makes him have the idea of what he wants to discover.
In my perspective, this part of his life is
really splendid, but I would never do what he did. Firstly, I think I need a
stable job to survive in the society and my family wouldn’t really have a financial
problem. Also, my family affords me a lot to make me study in a better
condition, so I cannot go to the adventure in my mind and leave all my
responsibilities away. Not every person is that lucky to go to a worse place
but survive successfully, so I need to make myself safe enough and I cannot
accept a huge failure in my life. Thus, even though I’m excited by his unusual
life experience, I wouldn’t do that.
To conclude, Frozen in time is a good book
that tells me a lot of historical information and some exciting stories. I wish
people would read this book with a character with some odd life experience.
Citation:
Kurlansky, Mark. Frozen in Time: Clarence
Birdseye's Outrageous Idea about Frozen Food. N.p.: Random House
Children's, 2014. Print.
