Consumerism Essay Examples - Argumentative Topics for Research Papers

Consumerism in “Brave New World”

In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, individuality is denied and social conformity is law. Within this society, Bernard Marx experiences both internal and external conflict. It is clearly evident that Bernard is seen as the misfit since his introduction. Fanny Crowne frequently refers to Bernard having too much “alcohol in his blood surrogate”, giving an explanation behind his different nature. Henry Foster also indicates that he does not “respond well to conditioning”. These qualities led Bernard to feel alienated from […]

The Role of Assembly Lines in the Mass Production of Goods

Back in the day, companies would mostly build their goods depending on the number of orders they had from customers. This meant that if a customer wanted any good from a store, he or she would go to the store to look for the product, and if the store did not have one ready, the customer would be given a certain amount of time he or she would have to wait while they worked on producing the good he or […]

Social Awareness and Food Insecurity

The majority of society has become blissfully unaware of where their food is coming from. There are several possibilities as to where this ignorance comes from. One prominent reason is that people are in a hurry. Most people are so wrapped up in their day to day business that eating often gets pushed to the bottom of the list. Wendell Berry is an environmental activist, a writer, and a farmer who asks important questions that urge people to deeply consider […]

Benefits and Harm of Buy Nothing Day in Different Countries

As a person living in the 20th century, buying, selling, and viewing products for purchase is a part of our culture. Consumer culture has become inherent to who we are as people, especially in places like the United States. But while consumer culture may be pleasing for those that have the pleasure to buy things, and make money from selling these things, consumerism isn’t all unicorns and rainbows. Consumerism, especially when done on a large scale, can damage the earth’s […]

Andy Warhol and Pop Art

Pop Art is one of the most influential art genres of the 20th century. In its early days, it had different names, such as neo-dadaism and neo-realism. The real Pop Art appeared in the mid and late 1950s and 1960s. After World War II, with the rapid development of the American economy, new consumer goods and consumption ways emerged. At the same time, the corresponding medias were born, and consumer culture began to play an important role in people’s life. […]

Influence of Andy Warhol

Pop Art is one of the most influential arts of the 20th century. It appeared in the mid-1950s. After World War II, with the rapid development of the American economy, new merchandises and shopping ways emerged. At the same time, new kind of media were born, and consumer culture began to play an important role in people’s lives. The cultural transformation changed people’s lifestyle and values. With the popularization of mass consumption, Pop Art was born, and it clearly expresses […]

The Perversion of Spiritual and Emotional Fulfillment in “Fight Club”

Introduction Semiotics is the study of symbols and signs a communication system which relies on a visual metaphor to communicate information in the most culturally universal instinctual way. Explored in film first by Peter Wollen in his book “Signs and their Meanings” Peter put forward symbols as integral communication devices to help progress story and meaning. Fight Club was originally a book written by Chuck Palahniuk in 1996 and later adapted into a screenplay by Jim Uhls. It is a […]

Faludi as a Lens for Fight Club

Imagine if there was a place where you were not judged based on your appearance, socioeconomic status but solely on your ability to physically overpower the person standing in front of you. The 1999 film Fight Club, directed by David Fincher, tells the story of two men who form an underground club where they fight violently against other men. The creation of Fight Club served as an outlet for a group of men who felt emasculated by their corporate jobs […]

Everything’s is a Copy, of a Copy, of a Copy

“Everything is a copy, of a copy, of a copy.” (Fight Club) Adorno and Horkheimer know that this is true. Their analysis of American culture and society comes in a chapter of their book Dialectic of Enlightenment called The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception. Adorno and Horkheimer identify the ‘culture industry’ as a phenomenon of capitalism that includes all products from Hollywood to the music industry. These forms of popular culture are designed to satisfy the growing needs of […]

Problems of American History

Cornel West is the author of Democracy Matters, Winning the Fight Against Imperialism. It was published by the Penguin Group in 2004. Cornel West is best known for his literary work, Race Matters, which analyzes the impact race has had in American history. In Democracy Matters, West dives into the problematic behavior of the United States, specifically narrowing in on our imperialistic behavior in the name of democracy. Within the span of seven chapters, West outlines the points of contention […]

Popular Culture is Simply an Expression of our Collective Experiences

I would like to agree with the phrase by a popular American blogger that Popular culture is simply an expression of our collective experiences. This opinion may seem to insinuate that popular culture is of great advantage to the American society, but this is not the real case. In the last century, this was certainly true as this was the only means by which people dealt with social problems that ailed the society. Looking at the turn that popular culture […]

A Problem of Sexism

Abstract Sexism exists and will continue to sprout thorns in the vines of modern efforts to promote social progression. It’s a reality that is sobering and sharp in the side of activists and marginalized communities, but it’s history and continuously changing effect on society is interesting considering social norms and how standards are changing. One way that this is reflected is in the way that advertising and marketing has changed, or rather hasn’t, in the past 100 years since the […]

Two People of Wal-Mart an Ethnography Experiment

In anthropology, culture is the full range of learned human behavior patterns. (O’Neil, 2006). In the United States, this culture could be defined as a massively multi-ethnic, materialistic consortium of merging cultures from around the world. Known as the melting pot the world over, America has the distinction of being a nation built from emigration. While smaller subcultures exist and are referred to as the American Way, they are not mutually exclusive, nor are they sole proprietors of that title. […]

Impact of the Progressive Era on our Culture Today

The Progressive Era in America is usually defined as the first two decades of the 1900’s when economic changes brought millions of people to cities, creating many changes and problems in society. This era has had an impact on our culture today in many ways, including the growth of consumerism, the rise of women’s rights, and the relationship between the people and the government. Job opportunities during this period caused many immigrants and people from rural areas to move to […]

The Industrial Revolution Environmental

Isaiah Kessler Womack A05 Assignment #3 Rough Draft 19 November 2018 The Industrial Revolution: Environmental Decay in 18th Century Britain The Industrial Revolution followed colonialism and is marked as the time in which we as human beings progressed into the modern age. During the time of the Industrial Revolution there was a great expanse in technological innovations and many changes to human society. Major countries, such as Britain and the United states, that underwent large scale industrialization, turned into hubs […]

The Greatest Economic Disaster

The Great Depression of the 1930s was the greatest economic disaster the United States has ever experienced. The effects were lasting and far-reaching. Though there were multiple factors that contributed to this disaster, one underlies them all. The most contributing factor to the Great Depression was the rampant consumerism of the 1920s because this consumerism led to overproduction of goods, extensions of credit for people to purchase these goods, and speculative investments in stocks of the companies that produced those […]

What does Cultural Identity Mean?

Culture can be defined as human practices, the languages one speak, values that are based on ethnicity, religion, and common interest. It also includes the arts, social interactions of groups and people and human intellectual achievement. Culture can also be termed as and symbol of communication. The symbols of communication can include knowledge, skills acquired from a group, attitude, motive, and values. Culture is also the total sum behavior of all learned things from a particular group through interaction that […]

The Hidden Truths Behind America

The American daily lifestyle has changed dramatically over the past few decades. Many people blame this drastic change of cultural norms on society becoming too digitally inclined, and or on modern American politics, but going down further there can be another source found. The goal of this paper is to sort out the articles that are excerpted from the anthology Mirror on America by Joan T. Mims and Elizabeth Nollen, as well as Living It Up by James B. Twitchell […]

Scenes that Show Masculinity

In this essay i will be analyzing and discussing the themes that were discussed that were used in the movie fight club. The first and main one being is masculinity. Violence was another theme that was used. Third one and most important one is identity and the last one is consumerism. The movie tells a story in which the narrator in the story develops these new personalities as to who he actually wants to be. Fight club was created by […]

Pollution and Greater Amounts

Is increased Consumerism a good thing? Consumerism is social and economic order that is based on the systematic creation and fostering of a desire to purchase goods or services in ever greater amounts. In other words, increased consumerism also increases consumption of goods. In today’s society consumerism is often portrayed to be a negative aspect of people’s lives and purchasing behaviours, which inevitably leads to materialism. So, increased consumerism has many disadvantages, such as pollution and increased wastage in form […]

Target Marketing in Bottle Water

1. Target marketing and market segmentation of Bling H20 Bling H2O crystal-encrusted of Beverly Hills is the inspiration of Kevin G. Boyd, a Hollywood writer-producer. While working on various studio lots where image is, well, everything, he noticed that you could tell a lot about a person by the bottled water he/she carried. So just like any other savvy business person, he decided to capitalize on his finding. “Our product is strategically positioned to target the expanding super-luxury consumer market. […]

The Ethical Behaviour of Firms: do Ethics Work?

1. Dissertation title Proposal Does ethical behaviour pay? An investigation of whether the Western consumer society cares about ethical behaviour of firms, and in such potentially could have an influence on corporate social responsibility behaviour of organizations, and hence give an indication of whether ethical behaviour pays in terms of consumer popularity. 2. Introduction and overall aim, objectives and rational for the research Companies such as Enron, Nike, Nestle and Exxon, just to mention a few, have been in the […]

The Concept of Preaching

The concept of preaching Chapter Two Contextual Literature Review 2.1 Establishing a starting point. Sermons are not a kind of discourse given much serious public attention in twenty-first century Britain. The very concept of preaching often brings with it negative connotations. To accuse any contemporary commentator of ‘preaching’ is to suggest that unsubstantiated opinions are being delivered in a tedious manner. That in such common usage ‘preaching’ is almost invariably a highly critical or even condemnatory epithet indicates something of […]

Labeling

Labeling – An instrument to market Green goods Executive Summary The area of green marketing is on the verge of becoming a big business in India. In this regard, the objective of this project was to study one aspect of the same in detail and see how it could be used to market green goods more effectively. Labeling was this one aspect that formed the focal point. After a review of the existing literature, the knowledge gap that followed was […]

The Scope of Branding

Acknowledgement I would first and foremost like to acknowledge the generosity of the villagers of Telav, Shela, Kaneti(Gujarat) and Amgachia(WB) who in spite of their busy life took time to let me understand their lives. I am also deeply indebted to Prof. Rajat Iyer and Prof. Arbind Sinha, Faculty MICA,for being a thesis guide in every sense of the word. I would also like to thank Mr Shailesh Yagnik, Librarian MICA, and all the library staff for their immense cooperation […]

Essays on Consumerism