Consumer+Culture+Reflection!

I believe that Americans are the ultimate consumers. We live in a culture that is wrapped in a blanket of advertisement. We are enthralled and enchanted by the consumer world. What is supplies and what it offers to the American people. Companies like McDonalds are companies that really exemplify the American consumer. I chose to add a dialog from the movie Super size Me, it was a movie made a couple years ago. This is a dialog of a man talking to a bunch of kids, asking if they know or recognize some of the presidents and non of the kids could recognize the presidents. However, when they pulled out pictures of McDonalds icons, all the kids recognized their faces. I think that Americans are so wrapped up in "stuff". All kids hear about is McDonalds and they want it. They see the big, juicy, delicious burger on television and they need to get a bite into that burger. Advertisement pulls in everyone, no one can resist. The faces from the media and the ideas that they instill into our heads are destroying American culture. On an even more serious level, adults are convinced that money is the only thing that will make them happy. While money is essential in order to have a home, food, and support a family. However, Americans believe that in order to be happy they need an abundance of money so that they can buy the things that they see on television each night. They want diamonds, they want the latest technology, and they want a huge home. On my wall I have a picture of an American family pictured with the food that they have in their cabinets. All the food was is stacked on the table and it signifies the over consumption of the American character. All the food is packaged and gross. Most importantly, its not nutritional and it is spoiling the children. Then below the American family I have a picture of a family from Africa. You can see in the first picture that a girl is by her home but she is surrounded by nothing but waste. There is garbage and dirt all over the grounds. There is no industry or home in sight. To me this photograph shows the emptiness of the African culture. There are millions of people living in America that don't even come close to making as much as the American lower class. Millions are starved and surrounded by poverty throughout their entire life. However, there are still families out there that are still smiling. The family in the image looks starved, but they all still have smiles on their face. This is a contrast to American popular culture. While people in Africa are trying to live each day and make it alive, America has told us that without an access of money, we will not be happy. The generation that I live in teaches me that without money "my dreams will not come true". With modern shows like Gossip Girl, I am told to believe I will not have a boyfriend with buying makeup and clothing and that concept drives our culture. These ideals were instilled in us since the beginning. In the Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald Jay Gatsby is a man who has a dream of reuniting and marrying his long love Daisy Buchanan. Jay Gatsby has worked many long years in order to become rich enough to impress Daisy. Gatsby was a man who would do whatever he could do for money. He engaged in illegal activity in order to have as much as he could to impress Daisy. He would not even dare talk to her without being able to offer her happiness and pleasure, and he believed that that was through money. He bought a mansion across the lake from Daisy and he wanted her to fall in love with him because of his success and honor through his money and lavish parties he threw in his mansion. Money he believed would buy happiness, however, in the Great Gatsby it did not.

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