1C Essay Options for Essay #1 Fall Semester 2009

 First Option:

 

We read in Eric Weiner’s The Geography of Bliss that some of the world’s most wealthy countries, such as the United States and Qatar, don’t fare so well on the Happiness Index. In the United States, a country that pursues materialism with such gusto that it has inspired Laurence Shames to write about our unique materialism as “The More Factor” (see page 86), many of us are concerned that our rapacious consumer appetites are to our detriment. But others argue the opposite, namely, that our rapacity makes us innovative and uniquely American. In a 5-page research paper (typed and double-spaced using a 12 font) that refers to “The More Factor,” “Mixed Messages,” “The Semiotics of Home Décor,” and “The Signs of Shopping,” defend or refute the following assertion:

Prudes and humorless do-gooders are misguided in their hackneyed argument that American materialism results in unhappiness. As many of the essays in Chapter 1 show, consumerism is a glorious and elevating human endeavor that contributes to happiness by helping us find identity, by helping us form the important bonding and intimacy which occurs in the shopping process, by keeping us hungry for “more,” and by helping us achieve self-actualization.

To be a successful essay, your defense or refutation of the above should address ALL the alleged “glorious and elevating” results that are mentioned.

 Your essay could be structured as such: In about a page, summarize the major arguments one could make to contend that consumerism leads to happiness. Then in your second page, give us your verdict, that is, your thesis, which addresses the assertion above.

 

Second Option:

We find in Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Science of Shopping” (93) that the business world is rife with “retail anthropologists” who conduct sophisticated research and surveillance on consumers to predict their consumer behavior. But same argue that such surveillance and research is unethical and manipulative, that the techniques these “retail anthropologists” use cross the line to the point of being invasive, insidious, and indeed unethical and manipulative. Based on your research, write a 5-page argumentative essay that defends or refutes the practice of “retail anthropology.”