¶ … lobster festival in Maine for Gourmet magazine and another comments on the human tendency toward materialism, both James Twitchell and David Foster Wallace share an appreciation for the written word. Their writing styles are engaging, using colloquial and familiar language to explore meatier topics. A use of naturalistic language prevents Twitchell's "Two Cheers for Materialism" from falling into the trap of making scholarly writing inaccessible to the masses, and likewise prevents Wallace's "Consider the Lobster" from being as trite and trivial as most articles written for mainstream magazines. The similarities between these two articles are remarkable considering their different subject matters and themes. In terms of both tone and style, Wallace and Twitchell use just enough sarcasm to keep the reader interested, but neither permits their wit to be weighted down by cynicism. Both authors use neologisms judiciously, as when Wallace coins the term "yachty" to refer to Camden, Maine, and when Twitchell talks about "mallcondo" culture. In both cases, it is impossible to imagine better terms for these words, which is why the option of neologism remains open. Twitchell and Wallace use real words when they can, but when real words cannot quite capture the essence of what they are trying to say, their made-up words make the concepts sound a lot more interesting. Both authors use long sentences liberally, but neither allows those long sentences to become cumbersome or grammatically irksome....
The authors' sense of pacing is immaculate, as short sentences break up the long ones. As part of their commitment to keeping their language use fresh, Wallace and Twitchell embrace words like "stuff." For example, Wallace writes, "And it's true that they are garbagemen of the sea, eaters of dead stuff, although they'll also eat some live shellfish, certain kinds of injured fish, and sometimes each other," (1). Twitchell writes, "Americans spend more time tooling around the mallcondo -- three to four times as many hours as our European counterparts -- and we have more stuff to show for it." In both sentences, the tone is straightforward and tinged with playful sarcasm.
Materialism from a Symbolic Interactionist Perspective Some sociologists may center on the family tackling issues, for example, marriage, domestic violence divorce and child rearing. In addition, the sociologists may also try to get knowledge of how different cultures define these issues, and their effect on individuals and institutions. Other sociologists may explore larger social organizations such as businesses and governments analyzing their formations. In addition, other sociologists may focus on divisions
Materialism: Appreciating the Real Worth of Material Objects Of all the material items I possess, the object which I value the most is undeniably my cell phone. It is my constant companion. It is the first thing I use in the morning to check my email and Facebook page and it is the last thing I turn off at night. With my cell phone, I can contact my friends and family.
After the sacrifice, he gave her nothing. The true question is if Torvald would have ever done anything so selfless for Nora. We are left to believe that he would not because she was nothing more to him than a plaything and those can replaced when they break, give out, or leave. The only problem with Nora's love, other than the fact that it might have been immature, was
Marx cries out that in Capitalism, "That culture... is, for the enormous majority, a mere training to act as a machine." It is this exploitation which persists today and which is far worse than the mere depression of living standards. Capitalism is intrinsically linked with consumerism, and both replace a sacred connection to one's vocation and one's art with a profane connection to one's paycheck and the throw-away products
Karl Marx Historical Materialism. Marx's materialist theory of history Marx's theory of history is called 'historical materialism' because of his belief that economics (material goods) determine how history evolves, not ideology, personality, or other popular theories of the 19th century when he wrote. "Most struggles in history are class struggles, even though the participants profess other goals. For example, Protestantism reflects the rising capitalist class" (McCarthy 1995). Marx wrote that history evolves
Marx and Historical Materialism Karl Marx rejected the philosophical Idealism of Hegel and the utopianism of the early socialists in favor of a theory of history thoroughly grounded in materialism. For Marx, ideas, cultures, political systems were all part of the superstructure of society while economics and the social relations of classes represented the base that truly drove history forward. Economic forces were the motor of history, not ideas, philosophies or
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