While on a train heading from St. Louis, the unnamed narrator meets a stranger who tells him a story about being stranded on a train because of a blizzard with no way for the passengers to get help..  The fascinating part of the story is that instead of starving from hunger, the men on the train decided to democratically elect their fellow sufferers as a way of deciding who will be eaten to provide food for the others, starting off with the consumption of  a Mr. Harris.  In all, the total of deaths due to cannibalism was around a dozen, and they were stranded on the train for more than a week.  While reading this story, the reader becomes depressed and horrified that people could be put in a situation that required them to eat other people and that they would actually go through with it.  The general theme of this story is that people will do whatever it takes to ensure their survival.  The ontological questions that “Cannibalism in Cars” deals with are “is a person basically alone or an integral member of society, how important is nature, and what does it mean to be human?”