Friday Black' Consumerism Vs Civilization

The Friday black narrative is a major hyperbole that can be used to show consumerism which leads to low civilization. In the book, “Friday Black: Consumerism Minus Civilization” the author states that Black Friday deals have gone out of control. People should realize that black Fridays is not such a big deal. Black Friday makes people go too far to the point that they could kill each other over a small percentage discount. In the story, the author mentioned the crazy target woman with OCD and her obsession with Black Friday deals. We should avoid being like her because people are becoming lunatics over nonsense deals. Another thing is that people start caring about Black Friday more than Thanksgiving. On the next day, people go to the stores and become insane over silly deals and forget that yesterday they were thanking God for what they have and start wanting more. In the story the author states that “The nearly 200000 signatures on part-time Target employee Anthony Hardwick’s petition to “Save Thanksgiving” is proof that both employees and customers of target are beginning to see this endless race by retailers to one-up each other as dehumanizing and ridiculous.” Retailers are starting to harm each other for the competition and to get the advantage over each other. That is why Black Friday needs to be more controlled so that people could stop hurting each other.

Consumerism refers to the tendency of accumulating things in big amounts and numbers especially following a certain scenario such as price decrease. Whereas consumerism initially is meant to improve economic growth by manipulating the demand of people into making them want to spend more, it has eventually evolved to be a tool that requires social control. For example, researchers argue that the world’s population has been burning recently all the resources in the planets. This has been estimated to increase on a monthly basis with more than 20%. The increase in the urge to accumulate resources will not only bring impact on humane scenario but also in the environment. A research conducted by the WorldWatch Institute has proved that consumerism is environmental havoc that needs be addressed soon (Vihavainen & Bogdanova, 2015). In the story Friday Black, the author tries to show how consumerism has consumed the society that social affairs are no more the target of any person in the society but rather each individual focuses on their own well-being. The case of a woman at thirties who takes off her heels and smashes a child in the jaw with it just before she can pick the fleece is a clear description of a rotten society that has been influenced by personal desires and forgotten the art of caring. The woman holds the fleece, checks the size and after realizing it is a medium, she throws that to the ground to the boy with a heel-size in his cheek.

Consumerism has brought along oppression and injustice in society. The huge increase in the urge to accumulate more wealth and resources than other people have validated the saying that the rich get richer while the poor get even more poorer. Resources that are available to every member of society are been enjoyed by the haves in the society while the have nots suffer from their deficiency. In the current life, resources are continually been owned by the rich as they have power to claim the resources whether in terms of purchases or exploitation since they can be defended by their own powers and resources. By acquiring these resources, the rich will oppress the poor through transfer of possessions but in exchange for other resources that the poor might be owning. This does not only lead to oppression but also creates more social classes thus widening the gap between the haves and the have nots (Tasnadi et al., 2018). In the story of Friday Black, the author validates oppression and injustice by portraying a character who plays like a man who boasts saying “C-C-COAL BUBBLE…” and that he is the only man who does not have a Coalmeister yet he was a senior advisor. The man is beating his chest. The author tries to shut him up and grabs one Coalmeister bubble coat then throws that to the man. It is obvious noting that the man is given the privilege to own one by considering him as a senior advisor. This shows how our society is rotten that it focuses on power more than welfare and hence the people who will always be less privileged are the have nots for they face oppression in terms of discrimination, social injustice among others. This is as well-validated by the scenario when the author uses the persona to describe the man with wild eyes who is seriously injured. If the society was fair, the narrator would have checked on him but he is just a mere poor man who wanted to feel like a man in the presence of his son (Lennon et al., 2018).

On the other hand, Civilization may be termed as an advanced stage that society may reach in their way of life and cultural observance. Civilization is evident in the story Friday black through various angles. Civilization brings along changes in the society through which people figure things, the nature of the choices and evaluation of real-life issues (Telford & Siegel, 2018). In the story Friday Black, the author has tried to bring both sides of civilization. On the first side, he uses a case of a girl who he sees from the side of cabin and who disappears in the swerve of consumers and who is sprawled down with dirty shoe prints on her pink jacket. The author tries to show how civilization has aided in moral decay of the society considering that the prints in the jackets mean the girl has been stepped on. The pain of losing a baby makes the mother pull the girl towards the narrator so that she can be accorded some aid. The author, on the other hand, tries to show the other side of civilization through his act of kindness. Despite working too hard so that he could have the expensive large sleek pack for his mother as a present of his hard work, the author notes that the narrator finally does not even keep the sleek pack for his mother but identifies a needier girl and hands it to her. This shows compassion.

From the story of Friday Black, it is therefore obvious concluding that the author uses a hyperbolic structure to deliver many themes. These themes include Racism; inhumane among others but an evident theme from the particular story is the theme of consumerism and civilization which addresses the changes brought along by the consumerism behavior of the society.

References

1. Black Friday Lures More Young, Savvy Shoppers. (2015). Industry Conditions, 1–4
2. Lennon, S. J., Minjeong Kim, Jaeha Lee, & Johnson, K. K. P. (2018). Consumer Emotions on Black Friday: Antecedents and Consequence. Journal of Research for Consumers, (32), 70–109.
3. TAŞNADI, A., ALEXANDRU, I. E., USTINESCU, G., & BRADU, P. C. (2018). Consumerism and exclusion in a throw-away culture. Theoretical & Applied Economics, 25(3), 101–112.
4. Telford, T., & Siegel, R. (2018). For crowds that still show up for Black Friday, it’s a gray area. The Washington Post.
5. Tuttle, B. (2017). The Psychology Behind Black Friday—and Why It Will Never Go Away. Money, 46(11), 74–77.
6. Vihavainen, T., & Bogdanova, E. (2015). Communism and Consumerism : The Soviet Alternative to the Affluent Society. Boston: Brill.