Substance vs Surface

Barbara Kingsolver in the personal essay “Life Without Go-Go Boots” argues that people should not feel obligated to conform to society, instead they should embrace their individuality. Kingsolver supports her claim by using chronological order and figurative language. The author takes the reader from elementary school to middle and high school and finally to college and adulthood. The author uses chronological study to show the reader how her style and yearn to be fashionable evolved as she got older and more mature. When she became an adult, Kingsolver realized that conformity was not worth sacrificing happiness and comfort. Kingsolver also incorporates hyperbole into her writing. “High fashion has the shelf like of potato salad, and when

People who are driven by greed end up focusing on what they do not have instead of being grateful for what they do have. This is relevant in the short story “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant because Mathilde Loisel ends up losing everything she owns just because she lets greed drive her decisions and get the best of her. When receiving an invitation to an extravagant ball, she declines because she says she does not have anything nice to wear. In the beginning of the short story she says, “There is nothing more humiliating than looking poor in the middle of a lot of rich women.(Maupassant).” The reader sees how she puts value in possessions and what others think of her. After finding a dress and then borrowing a necklace that she thought

It is unfortunate that we live in a society that places such a great emphasis and consideration towards the aesthetics of beauty. What is more

There was a time when social classes were most easily identified through material goods and possessions. Whether wealth was gained through inheritance or hard work, it was the luxury items that made the most visible and tangible statement regarding a person’s social status. Men could rely on a large house or expensive car to proclaim the success they had earned. It was much more common to see women adorned in jewels, designer clothes, and furs as symbols of her upper class status. The extravagance of a woman’s appearance was a reflection of the success of her husband, so it was natural to indulge her desire for expensive material possessions.

Around the world, values are expressed differently. Some people think that life is about the little things that make them happy. Others feel the opposite way and that expenses are the way to live. In Guy de Maupassant’s short story, “The Necklace”, he develops a character, Madame Loisel, who illustrates her different style of assessments. Madame Loisel, a beautiful woman, lives in a wonderful home with all the necessary supplies needed to live. However, she is very unhappy with her life. She feels she deserves a much more expensive and materialistic life than what she has. After pitying herself for not being the richest of her friends, she goes out and borrows a beautiful necklace from an ally. But as she

Eighner adopts a non-critical tone by never attacking the people who have materialistic or wasteful tendencies. Instead, he provides entertaining stories that support his two lessons to avoid lecturing the audience, which would cause them to become resentful of the author criticizing their way of life, and close their minds to the message of the essay. Keeping the tone light and humorous keeps the minds of the audience open. To achieve the tone, Eighner narrates personal stories that all relate back to the central argument against materialism and wastefulness. Eighner remarks “Do not think I refrain from chuckling as I make original gifts from these kits,” humorously illustrating how he makes gifts out of what most people would consider trash. This demonstrates people’s inherent wastefulness without eliciting a negative reaction from the audience. Furthermore, Eighner makes the seemingly outlandish assertion that he is similar to the “very wealthy” in that he does not dedicate his life to acquiring meaningless items, which provides humor but also subtly denounces the materialism of the “rat-race millions” who entrap themselves in a struggle to gain material objects. By not making his criticism explicit, Eighner is able to persuade the audience to drop their materialistic

(BS-3) There were multiple contrasting characters that did not follow the same path as the others. (BS-2) Losing emotions and priorities are the two main effects of materialism. (BS-1) The characters described by the author are shown to be full of materialistic personalities. (R) A message from this book is that people should stop focusing on looks and objects and start interacting with people to receive true

Nic Laycock J.Berte Composition 1 FD16 Summary and Analysis On Dumpster Diving Lars Eighner’s “On Dumpster Diving” (Published is a first person informative essay that explores the art of Dumpster diving. Almost presented as a user guide or instructional piece his key message is about the wastefulness of consumers and the shallowness of materialism. About a year before he became homeless, Eighner began sourcing all of his life necessities from dumpsters because of a lack of money as all his income was spent on rent. He makes the claim that it is possible to survive and be content with life simply by living off the refuse and waste of others.

In his book, “Money and Class in America,” Lewis Lapham states, “The ardor of the American faith in money easily surpasses the intensity achieved by other societies in other times and places.” This notion is the reoccurring theme in Lapham’s book. America is so taken with the idea that without money your achievements do not mean as much as they would if they came with a large sum of cash. We as a society value money over more important qualities such as knowledge or integrity.

Because Heidegger does not agree with the creations of modern times, he does not agree with the term aesthetics. He mentions how Kant used the term aesthetics in Critique of Judgment. Heidegger explains how the Greeks first generated the word. Aesthetics deals with the senses and does not deal with the mind and knowledge. It is the opposite of what a truth would be. Heidegger explains how this is an issue as it is not a way to search for the truth in something. Our minds, unlike our senses, search to understand and find truth.

During our life we construct many different identities of who we want to portray ourselves as to the rest of society; fashion plays a vital role in generating who we are. With the ideas from Storry and Childs they state that “the way that we dress can either serve to confirm or to subvert various facets of our identities, such as our gender,

The late Irish poet Oscar Wilde once stated, "In the world, there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” This quote accurately describes human nature to the extent that man is never fully satisfied with his current possessions. In fact, most people who rely on materialistic items for happiness are typically desolated and miserable. This story is based on an archaic view on women, where women have no caste or hierarchy. The people grade women based off their looks and beauty. Money “practically makes nobility” (Shmoop). It “enables the user to pay for the high life” (Shmoop) and confine the person with luxurious items known to man. Money controls the life of people,

Some people utilize fashion as a means of self definition. For example, for some people, brand names carry intrinsic value. A person may wear Burberry frequently. Why? The brand makes the person feel connected to the fashion that she loves. It does not matter that the person could buy about ten shirts at Kohl's for the price of one Burberry piece - the Burberry piece gives a person self esteem and pride in her appearance.

Her persistent mindset of wanting and needing more, is how her internal conflict developed. All of Madame Loisel’s issues relate back to her internal fascination with becoming incredibly rich and valued by her peers. The text states, “She had longed so eagerly to charm, to be desired, to be wildly attractive and sought after.” (1) Madame Loisel’s mindset was simply set on materialistic things and being respected amongst her peers. Even throughout the years, her idea of ‘perfection’ never changed a bit. The story reads, “But sometimes, when her husband was at the office, she sat down by the window and thought of that evening long ago, of the ball at which she had been so beautiful and so much admired.” (5) Ten hard and stressful years later, Madame Loisel is still under the impression that everything she has must be beautiful and valued. This situation expresses irony because although she is beautiful, she still feels a desire to receive expensive things. The text states, “She was one of those pretty and charming girls born, as though fate had blundered over her, into a family of artisans… She suffered endlessly, feeling herself born for every delicacy and luxury.” (1) Although she is beautiful

Famous fashion Designer Gabrielle Coco Chanel (1883-1971) stated that luxury is a necessity that begins where necessity ends. Similar ideas were acknowledged by the famous economist Veblen (1899), in his book The Theory of the Leisure Class, who explains the concept of conspicuous consumption as the waste of money and/or resources by people to display a higher status than others. Luxury is concept related to status, ego and psychogenic needs; it is not necessary for survival. Luxury goods have always been associated with high quality, craftsmanship, uniqueness, creativity, exclusivity and innovation. Apart from these product attributes, the consumers also get the additional psychological benefits like esteem, prestige and a sense of a high status that reminds them and others that they belong to an exclusive group who can afford these expensive goods.