The Allure Of Luxury By Chuck Palahniuk

Price continues building her portrayal of United States culture as superficial and materialistic with detailed descriptions of household items. By downsizing from large-scale hotels described in her first two paragraphs to small-scale household items in her third paragraph, Price exemplifies the materialistic ways of United States culture. Americans purchased “washing machines, cars, and kitchen countertops” in the various shades of pink. The desire of Americans to own the audacious color displays their need for material possessions. Price describes the shades of pink available,

In The Prince, Machiavelli doesn’t hesitate to recommend that a ruler employ conventionally immoral methods against his own subjects to maintain authority over them, but he does imply that whatever a ruler does should ultimately benefit the community. A Prince’s actions may be cruel, manipulative, or otherwise immoral, but they put him in the position to govern. On occasion, Machiavelli even suggests that gaining power through immoral acts is the best way to improve a community because immorality is pragmatic in a way morality is not. A strong ruler established by immoral means can then do good for his state; Machiavelli indicates that simply having power is not enough. A ruler should also use it well. Admittedly, a ruler may only want to do good for his state in an effort to secure his own position at its head, but the effect he has is no less good for the lack of selfless reasoning behind it. Machiavelli implies that a strong ruler who necessarily acquires and keeps power through immoral actions has a generally good effect on his state, which is a naturally moral byproduct of otherwise immoral deeds.

In the poem “Fear and Fame by Philip Levine, readers gain insight into the struggles of a blue collar worker. The intimate description of the worker highlights the dangerous and monotonous work he performed but also accentuates the pride of the blue collar worker. Levine’s use of meter and rhythm, irony, figurative language, and tone provide an understanding of the difficulties faced by blue collar workers.

Conspicuous consumption is a Marxist concept in which a consumer displays their wealth through items. This concept is displayed during the introduction of Percy Boyd Staunton “His parents were rich, his clothes were fine,and his mittens were of skin…”(Fifth Business 3). This description classes Percy’s family among the elite of society in comparison to Dunstan’s. Percy’s father a dentist, landowner and farmer was the capitalist of Deptford with a very limited economic vision. This upbringing created an adventure capitalist in which similar characteristics can be seen within Percy that can be seen as an addiction that will slowly warp Percy’s fate .

Often heralded as the world’s greatest nation, the United States is also considered home to the world’s greatest authors. Reputable authors such as Fitzgerald, Twain, and Steinbeck remain relevant even through the washing waves of time. One such timeless author, Ray Bradbury, ventured the hazardous path of taboo to write of change. Through his novels of innocent youths evolving into children enlightened beyond their years, Bradbury utilizes the motif of time, innocence, and the philosophical movements of existentialism, transcendentalism, and romanticism to describe catastrophic events the American culture could face if existing destitute judgments continue to prevail. Ray Bradbury dared to reveal his voice.

Many people today arrive in the United States of America in pursuit of achieving the American Dream. What is the American Dream, and what does it mean in today 's culture? The term “American Dream” was established since the Great Depression representing Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness; the very values this great nation was founded upon. The Dream was said to be successful if a person worked hard to achieve his/her goals. Even though prior the American Dream has been terminated however, citizens have transform it in terms of personal goals since the 1930s. Author Brandon King describes the American Dream as an, “Opportunity for each according to ability and achievement”(610). The American dream has to do with the concept of achieving success; being able to perform daily tasks to provide a brighter future for a person, and his/her family. Essentially, if you are passionate enough about what you do, success is always possible even with manageable obstacles. Although, hard work is one of the factors in achieving the American Dream, self-motivation has also made an impact. The reality is every citizen has the opportunity of achievement depending on his/her choices, and access to education.

Such possessions are utilized in a competitive manner in order to display status and values “Whom we invite to dinner affects who marries whom, which then affects who inherits what, which affects whose children get a head start” (76). This reinforces the existence of social class and capitalism in the sense that bodies are used as machines to work and eventually gain money to spend it on objects that seems to impress people on the surface, but in reality it only validates the person’s status and social class. Using my family home as an example, each room is designed to host different kinds of guests for certain occasions. No guest will ever be situated in the family’s living room for the reason that the wood design on the walls, the green velvet couches, the simple picture frames and the fact that it is directly open to the kitchen does not scream fancy, but comfort instead. For that, the guests are always welcomed in the fancy guest room, which has the fancy purple couches that are perfectly suited with the expensive silver accessories, the silver vases that contains the weekly rearranged black flowers and the displaced silver see-through cabinets that contains the finest chinas, crystals and silverware. In addition, some people in the Middle East still hold on to their culture, and as a result, some guests prefer to

“It’s not what you own its what people think you own” (Ewen 183). Consumerism is fueling today’s “middle class”. Stewart Ewen’s “Chosen People” goes into detail about the rise of the materialistic middle class.

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

Anna Quindlen, a novelist, social critic, and journalist wrote an intriguing essay “Stuff is Not Salvation” about the addiction of Americans, who splurge on materialistic items that have no real meaning. The ability to obtain credit is one of the main reasons to blame for society’s consumption epidemic. However, Quindlen feels the economic decline due to credit card debt is insignificant compared to the underlying issues of American’s binging problems. Quindlen’s essay gives excellent points regarding the differences in America’s typical shopping habits. Additionally, she mentions how people acquire all this “stuff” but seem to never realize, “why did I get this?”(501). Quindlen makes her

Twitchell’s claim is the article is that materialism is highly judge by the consumer especially by the Academy. One of his questions is “The real interesting question may not be why we are so materialistic buy why are we unwilling to acknowledge and explore what seems the central characteristic of modern life?”(365 Twichell) It states his claim and the thesis of his argument in this brief question. He wants the reader to

“Do you know what a duvet is? It's a blanket. Just a blanket. Is this essential to our survival? No. We're consumers. We're by-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty...these things don't concern me. What concerns me is celebrity magazines, television with five hundred channels, some guy's name on my underwear”(29 min.) We are a generation comprised of invidious and conspicuous consumers, desperately trying to meet society’s consumerist criteria; seeking the false promise of the American dream. This is the reality presented in Fincher’s Fight Club (1999), one of “the rawest, most hot-blooded, provocatively audacious, dangerous movies to come of out Hollywood” (Morris, 1999). Through the diverging personalities of the

“In a world that was theirs it was almost a regulation always to wish for more than you could have.” Such a world had only just arrived during the early nineteen sixties—with a surge in economic output, an increase in the average income, and the commercialization of mass-produced consumer goods—following the Second World War. This was a time during which France, in particular, transitioned from a class-based, limited-consumption culture to a consumer society in which individuals defined their positions and self-worth based on the possessions that they owned. Georges Perec’s novella Things: A story of the Sixties details the rise of this wealthy consumer society and the various industries that made it possible, through the story of a young couple in their twenties striving to attain an idealized life-style, while hoping to somehow escape what they consider to be a bourgeois trap.

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,

Beauty, money, and guns. These things at first glance seem incomparable, however, all three do have something in common. In Chuck Palahniuk's eyes, they all represent empowerment identically. "It's all mirror, mirror on the wall because beauty is power the same way money is power the same way a gun is power." quoted by Chuck Palahniuk, when discussing his own perception of power.