Signs Abound

Wal-Mart is Yall mart!

 
While strolling through the Wal-Mart Superstore, it became very clear that the"little guy bullying" mega shopping center was strategically designed to appeal to all levels of class and wealth.  There was a time when Wal-Mart took the cake as the hot spot where you could find products from cosmetics to car parts, and home decor to office supplies.  Fairly recently, however, they upgraded the monopolizing mansion to provide a full grocer section. The signs and labels on all the glorious products echoed the same promising slogan, guaranteeing the lowest prices, from 88 cent loaves of bread to $75 home basketball hoops. Wal-Mart carries almost anything a person needs for a price any consumer, rich or poor, can afford.  These great prices, blown up in size to catch the shoppers eye, remind them that "every person can enjoy the society's most significant pleasure, convenience, or benefit" (Marchand 183)  As I continued through the store observing the different customers, I saw men in slacks, leather dress shoes and clean-pressed button ups, strolling along with their wives and children all seemingly enjoying their time spent.  I also observed what I perceived to be the less wealthy American consumers, supporting their favorite football team's 2001 superbowl victory on a tattered old hat, dressed in faded denim shorts, and free blood drive t-shirts.  Though assumably varying in wealth and lifestyle, these American's are happy to be in the same store, buying the same great items, and paying an inarguably great price.  This idea of "equal access to consumer products offers Americans an inviting vision of their society as one incontestable equality" (Marchand 183).  To enjoy the very same luxuries as the upper-class is a desire most Americans would agree to having and thanks to Wal-Mart's low prices, can easily be accomplished.

Marchand, Roland.  “The Parable of the Democracy of Goods.”  Signs of Life in the U.S.A.  Ed. Sonia Maasik & Jack Solomon. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. 183. Print.

Paper 2 Resources

Here are the notes from the last few class days that I created to supplement the rubric--they include sample thesis and conclusions (note, I only wrote part of a sample conclusion) and the terms/concepts that you could use for the rubric section: Download Rhetoric-1

And here are the links to the other posts I have done related to paper #2:

Sample Evidence Paragraph

Approaches to Analyzing Evidence

Sample Premise Evaluation Paragraph

Sample Logic Evaluation Paragraph

'Meet you at the POV wash!'

In an elongated sit down at the car wash on Camp Pendleton, it became quickly apparent that the only existence of "class" with regards to peoples origin or ethnicity existed in the shiny new car they drove.  Over a period of just 2 hours, a multitude of beautiful luxury cars, sleek sports machines, and ground pounding trucks of colossal size made their way up and into the wash zone.  Not every POV (Personally Owned Vehicle) was deliciously classy though, as there were a few clunkers and "middle class" cars present.  As opposed to the lifestyle contradiction that America Ferrera lives in in her hit show 'Ugly Betty', economic and cultural origin are of little importance when cruising your newly washed luxury sedan on a military base that houses an almost equal amount of ethnic groups.  The nicer the car you see driving through the suburbia, usually the richer and more privileged the driver would as well be.  On base though, one can see that quite the opposite applies.  Of all the most expensive POV's I observed being scrubbed down, it was shocking to see that a majority were owned by either military men and women of lower rank.  Although, these younger, more materialistic warriors don't make nearly as much as the Officer ranks and senior enlisted, they purchased their very own class level by means of their car.  To them, a squeaky clean 8 foot tall Dodge Ram with a 4" lift and 34" tires is there way of escaping their lowly ranked economical origin and feeling connected with a higher class of style, luxury, and money.  Much like Ugly Betty's makeover though, in her home town, she is looked at like "goddess to men" (Traister 676), but once she stepped foot into Manhattan, her "classy" change is met with the backfired response that "Queen's pretty is not Manhattan pretty. Poor pretty is not rich pretty" (Traister 676) In the case of the "boots" or low ranking Marines with the fancy, debt causing cars, "Lance Corporal classy is not Liuetenant classy".  Even still, young Marines with not nearly a big enough pay check continue to endulge in the most fancy of cars just to try to appeal to all as high and mighty and above their pre-judged expectations.  This isn't the best portrayal of class,as the car sits in a barracks parking lot, gasless.

Traister, Rebecca.  “Class Act.”  Signs of Life in the U.S.A.  Ed. Sonia Maasik & Jack Solomon. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. 676. Print.

Put that Phone Down for One Second!

 

During my trip at Stater Bros., I observed "the contradiction between the simultaneous desire for social superiority (elitism) and social equality (populism) that lies at the heart of the American Dream" (Solomon 524) within lower middle class shoppers. While I was looking for the advertised 45 cent tuna in the canned meats aisle, a woman in her 30s was explaining to her teen daughter who looked very busy texting on her iphone, how she and her father could no longer support her (and her cell phone bill) with their insignificant level of income. The mother told the daughter she would need to start looking for a job and advised her to start looking at Stater Bros. As the girl who appeared to be my age seemed to dismiss her mother, the nagging mom continued on with the mini-economics lecture explaining to her, “I am 34 years old and I wasn’t embarrassed to go into CinemaStar for a job.” What I found contradictiory was how the girl was exhibiting signs of superiority to her mother by dismissing her as well as to other shoppers by using an expensive piece of technology in accordance with disregarding her surroundings. She was so wrapped up with her social life in angst of assuring acceptance and equality within her circle of texting fiends that she did not take the time to level with her mother and acknowledge that in the real world you need a job if you want to pay for your digital world. 

 

Solomon, Jack. "Masters of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising." Signs of Life

in the USA. Ed. Sonia Maasik and Jack Soloman. 6^th ed. Boston: Bedford, 2009.

525-534. Print.

Simpson's Ad from Superbowl

I thought I would post the Simpson's ad we discussed in class on Thursday. Here's to you commodified dissenter!