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Professor Corbally
English 101
7 January, 2012
Analysis of “Shopping and Other Spiritual Adventures in America Today”
Unlike many writers who complain about how materialistic Americans are, Phyllis Rose finds many positive qualities in the modern U.S. consumer society. One of the most obvious characteristics she notes in “Shopping and Other Spiritual Adventures in America Today” is the variety of goods available in American supermarkets. She visited a Waldbaum’s Food Mart in Connecticut and found,
Trail mix in Lucite bins. There was freshly made pasta. There were coffee
beans, 4 kinds of tahini, 10 kinds of herb teas, raw shrimp in shells and cooked
shelled shrimp, fresh squeezed orange juice. Every sophistication known to the
big city, even goat’s cheese covered with ash, was now available. (11)
Her list of exotic items shows the richness of choice that is available in very few other countries. To emphasize this she shows the wide-eyed envy of foreign visitors who tour U.S. stores.
Rose does not see this diversity and abundance of material goods as the only benefit of shopping; she sees a number of psychological benefits to living in a rich consumer society. She states, “We’re used to abundance and the possibility of possessing things. The things, and the possibility of possessing them, will still be there next week, next year. So today we can walk the aisles calmly” (12). In this statement she suggests that availability, not ownership of material goods, helps us to feel relaxed, unafraid of the kind of shortages and rationing which affects many other nations. She lists a number of other psychological benefits of shopping as well….