The start of the book is, of course, the prologue, so my summary will start there. The prologue, composed of three sections, informs the readers of the driving force behind the book, or why the authors wrote it. It also gives readers a glimpse into the "Age of Honey", the era before sugar had truly been discovered. It is used to set up a base time to start the book from. Then you, the reader, are plunged into part one, "From Magic to Spice." This section starts off with the story of Nearchus, a Greek ship captain who, along with Alexander the Great, discover sugar cane. In all actuality, sugar cane was, according to the book, cultivated first on the islands of New Guinea, then spread to surrounding areas by indigenous tribes. After this we reach the "magic" part, which describes sugar cane being used in Hindu rituals as a way to contact the gods. Eventually, the people who performed the rituals realized that boiling the juice of the cane causes it to crystalize into brown sugar. This method of creating sugar was passed along through the generations and, eventually, scholars at Jundi Shapur, an ancient school, refined the practice, making better tasting, sweeter sugar. Sugar was then used as a spice, like nutmeg or saffron. From Jundi Shapur, Muslim scholars and traders learnt these methods and spread it to nearby conquered lands. From those lands it spread even further, into Europe, specifically France! Then we learn that during the crusades, the holy knights learnt of sugar cane and the planting methods, spreading the knowledge of sugar to the tips of Europe and to a country of historical importance, Great Britain. However, to boil sugar cane, wood is required, and a lot of it. So when new land was found by what I like to call "the colonizing countries" (mainly Britain, Spain, and France), sugar flourished due to the abundance of trees and capturing locals to use as slaves to plow land, sew seeds, weed, and chop down sugar cane. Soon, more slaves were being shiped in from abroad, from Africa, where tribe leader sold their own tribe members for money, weapons, and modern products.
This is our entry into the second part of the book, "Hell." It is named this because being a sugar slave was like being in Hell. After a nice insert of relevant pictures, we are transported back to Europe, where sugar is being used to make sculptures. Then, the East India Company took a risk and brought over one of Englands now most famous icons, tea. Obviously that risk paid off! Of course, one cannot simply have tea by itself, it must have cubes or spoons of sugar to sweeten the slightly bitter taste. Sugar became a necessity to both the rich and poor, thus naming the era, "The Age of Sugar."
For the second part of this assignment, I would like to bring you back to the beginning of the book, the prologue. Now I will introduce the rhetorical triangle. There are three parts to it, which we will call logos, ethos, and pathos. Ethos is the author's credibility. For example, you're more likely to believe someone who is well-researched on a topic and has a background in the topic than a random pedestrian, right? Back in the prologue, we learned that the authors mention how their families have a history with sugar and they, the authors, were curious, so they researched a bit, uncovered many interesting facts, and created a book out of them. Plug them into the equation I stated earlier, and you, most likely, will feel more obligated to believe them. Also, they portray themselves as "the average Joe"who simply did a lot of research, which makes them more relatable and also makes their writing more understandable to mostly any person who knows how to read.
Pathos is using the audiences emotions to persuade them into believing you or siding with you. To do this, you need to know you intended audience. The intended audience of the book is a simpler matter, since the genre has a small audience to begin with. Non-fiction books, in general, are usually for educated adults or older teenagers who are interested in a specific topic. The book, "Sugar Changed the World", is for educated people, mostly adults, who are interested in world history, have a family history in sugar, or are simply curious by nature. It could also be for a teacher of any subject, for a teenager who wants to learn something new, or a student who was assigned a summer reading project! And lastly, logos, logic, the research and, arguably, the backbone of a work. I can personally attest to the fact that this book is well researched. I don't think any average person would know this much information otherwise! Before I check out, I would like to ask whoever is reading this to leave a comment if you liked it or have any questions and to check out the book's website, http://sugarchangedtheworld.com/. Please look forward to the next blog!
-The Blog Monster
Citations:
Aronson, Marc, and Marina Tamar. Budhos. Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science. Boston [Mass.: Clarion, 2010. Print.
