Essay On American Materialism

If Tyler Durden from Fight Club was sitting inside $340,000 Lamborghini Aventador, his hatred towards materialism probably would have driven him to accelerate the car right into the ocean. If James Twitchell was sitting inside of it, he probably would have just left the car in a parking structure with the keys still inside. Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Fight Club and James Twitchell’s essay “The Allure of Luxury”both take negative against the concept and phenomenon of Western materialism, where society indulge on luxurious items to the extent of being the focus of life. In Fight Club, the idea of anti-materialism is taken to a great extent, with the book’s main character and Tyler focusing on destroying the materialistic society with violence to restore a more primitive way of living. However, in Twitchell’s piece, materialism is taken more moderately, describing how materialism has rapidly expanded throughout the Western nations, questioning the if it is beneficial or malicious. I believe that materialism does provide great benefits that allowed us human beings to advance as a society. However materialism introduces numerous complications that impact our society on a macroscale. Before comparing and contrasting my view of materialism, we will first explore Twitchell’s essay, then Fight Club to first better understand their stance and concept of materialism.

Firstly, I believe that affluenza has impacted our country. Jim Sizemore drew a cartoon depicting a couple lying in their bed, surrounded by material goods, saying “something is missing.” This political cartoon is depicting the American desire of always wanting more. Also, “Money means so many things to us-spiritual as well as temporal-that we are at a loss to know how to hold its majesty at bay…,” (Source F). Lapham is describing how we are very close to letting money and material goods control our lives.

How do we define this ideology of the American Dream? Society has formulated this idea over time. We as people have chosen to base our lives around it and make it our goal to try and achieve something that in all honesty is just this abstract idea that we as have chosen to believe and chase over time. Due to society following this ideology, people have grown to believe that happiness can only be achieved after they have reached the American Dream. You see these advertisements for products that make you think if you don’t own that specific product than you are not going to achieve the American Dream. Media has managed to turn people into these materialistic beings that are just sitting there waiting to be told what to buy next. For my paper I will be analyzing the film The Great and focus primarily on this idea of materialism and more specifically how this American Dream myth and ideology plays into it. Why does the media want us to believe that happiness is derived from the “stuff” we buy and not the things we already have?

Things we want versus things we need. People often forget what they really need in life like water, air, food, shelter, love and affection and most importantly a family. Most people think they need a nice car or they need a $600 phone or nice name brand clothes but really you don’t. They don’t need all the extra stuff all of those things are mainly what you want because that’s what you see everyone else with around school or work or just in general wearing. So it makes you want it because you see everyone else with it. You don’t need materialistic things to make you fill superior in society.

I resonated with Diana Kendall’s, “Framing Class, Vicarious Living and Consumption” article. This author’s choice of language had a huge impact on me. It helped convey the message of the article in a much smoother way. The media has people thinking they can be rich and famous like the people in the television shows. With her language and choice of words, she was able to eloquently portray that TV shows make us feel as if we need to have what the celebrities have, so we buy into what they sell and we feel like we are living a life just like theirs. Living like this only makes us acquire debt, because we are spending money we do not have in prevalence. It does the exact opposite we will only end up being poor and not reach the same status as

Materialism was a very big thing during the 1920s, it was part of the American dream. Even today pupils still have the idea of materialism. Having everything you want and more won't make you happy at all, Gatsby learned this all he wanted was daisy love. This is a perfect example that money can't buy love or happiness. Perhaps you will be happy at first but in time you will realize that material things isn't worth anything. F. Scott Fitzgerald perfectly depicts the life

Materialism is a poison to society that prevents people from doing what is necessary for them. The novel, “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer demonstrates this. The novel is centered on Chris McCandless. He was on his way to graduate from a well-known university. He decides to leave, donating his money and burning the rest. He went into the wilderness, living off the land. He demonstrates materialism by taking only what was on his back. Materialism is a tendency to consider material possessions and physical comfort as more important than spiritual values. The average person requires possession of physical objects in order to be content. Chris shows through his actions that having physical comfort is not needed to acquire satisfaction. In “Into

America is seen as a culprit of treasuring material possessions. America has been infected with the disease called “affluenza”. This is a disease that causes Americans to work extra hours, “stress”, “waste”, and be in debt. If Americans become satisfied or the economy will drop in this happening seems like a myth. However, we need to be careful on fast we get addicted to inquiring material possessions.

Materialism, a tendency to consider material possessions and physical comfort as more important than spiritual values. The want and desire for more things in life beyond things that are necessary, show that Americans will never be content with what they have. In a sense, America has been worshiping material, this can clearly be seen because so many people value their phones an electronic devices almost to the extent of a human life. We as Christians know this is wrong because we refer to what the Bible says in Matthew 6:24, "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money”. The word money in this verse refers to money and material you buy with it, meaning that you cannot “serve”/worship both God and Earthly items. Materialism has become the American dream to many, an a major part of today's

Throughout the years of American culture, there have been dominate patterns of values that have stood the test of time and are still followed today. One value that stood out to me in particular is the comfort people gravitate to in materials. In the past century the focus of happiness has switched from family oriented to possessive. While mental possession is still very prominent, American’s gears have shifted to a more competitive, greedy society. There’s a materialistic dream that drives Americans to go to college and find a career that’s going to buy them a fancy car with a nice house that is bound to impress. Modern Americans are drawn to what is going to make them look more successful, so while memories and spiritual

This report is about how materialism has been around people since prehistoric. According to this article adapted from James B. In Twittchell’s book, it is stated that even though Materialism is a social illness, it may also serve more positive functions in the modern world (1). In this piece, the author tells us that materialism has been spread around the world. For example, nowadays people from many countries like to buy more and more stuffs. Now; for instance, we have a materialism culture, and commercialism helps to increase this kind of lifestyle. Moreover, there is a stereotype that portrays women as the most consumers; however, historians has contradicted this by saying that “in pre-industrial world men were the chief hunter-gatherers” (390). From my point of view and based on this article, I consider that materialism does not bring any kind of positive functions in our world; on the contrary, I think that nowadays materialism is

The pursuit of the American Dream has led to trends of high-cost material possessions. High tech digital devices, summer homes, and designer shoes are just some of the few examples of American materialism that is not only present, but also increasing as people purchase these kinds of products to fit in with the continually changing demands of

(MIP-1) Materialism can be seen in the way society controls its people. (SIP-A) People act with materials as their priority. (STEWE-1) The society has changed everyone's priorities so they value things over human life. This change has

Americans are considered to materialistic in nature, money conscious and care less about people that are less well-off economically.

As Austrian writer Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach wrote,“To be content with little is difficult; to be content with much, impossible.” History and literature have established that the ideal goal every American has wanted is for his thirst for material possessions to be reached, but even then, the individual isn’t truly happy. Money, and the things it can get you, have long been a part of American culture and the materialist culture of society have been examined in numerous ways from novels to the art of those like Andy Warhol. A life free from the economic woes that plague almost everyone seems like the quintessential existence, but material wealth is not a way to mend issues.