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  • Essay / Consumerism in Fight Club and Brave New World

    Chuck Palahniuk and Aldous Huxley paint an extremely fascinating portrait of the image of consumerism in their works. Miriam Webster, in her dictionary, defines consumerism as “the belief that it is good for people to spend a lot of money on goods and services.” Consumerism has more than one aspect. It can be materialistic, technological or self-consumption. The Industrial Revolution was basically the event that pushed people toward consumerism. Both novels indirectly represent an image of the American capitalist community dominated by consumerism and perfection. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay In Fight Club, we see that the characters are fighting against each other. However, this is not entirely true. Their true motivations and what they are fighting for transcend the fact that they are just fighting. All the characters in the novel are haunted by consumerism. They all embrace the idea of ​​Renewal in all its aspects. In fact, this mechanism results in making them victims of their societal customs, as if they were locked into the unbridled movement of consumerism. They all try to fulfill their desires by doing this. They only seek joy and nothing more. However, they are not satisfied. Their appetite for buying and buying new things is always higher. “The things you own end up owning you” (Palahniuk, 1996). The novel depicts another dimension of contemporary American growth which is the pursuit of perfection. For them, perfection can be in the body of a human being or in anything else like a house, for example. “One minute of perfection was worth it. One moment was all that could be expected from perfection. » (Palahniuk, 1996). In the modern American community, the expression "the perfect man" refers to a man who is wealthy, elegant, and adequate. Moreover, a man who owns a large portion of luxurious furniture; therefore, influences the surrounding people. America's infatuation with perfection and beauty and its fascination with consumerism are two sides of the same coin, as the novel suggests; both are overcome by the passion to be "perfect". In other words, the characters in the novel sell themselves in pursuit of perfection. This devastating passion of the characters in the novel has the effect of transforming them into “products”, quite simply like a piece of furniture in an apartment. In Brave New World, there is a logo that says “Community, Identity, Stability”. The entire system of this world state is established according to these elements. This system is conditioned. The characters are conditioned and systematized to consume. They are taught that when possessions are broken and need to be repaired, they should get rid of them. "It is better to finish than to repair. The more points there are, the less wealth there is" (Huxley 52). The people of the World State are recognized as inferior and lesser beings if they do not possess the newest and most extreme goods. It's the same case. In the United States, the highest percentage of citizens view substantial property as something that can simply be disposed of and traded. One way to identify people is to know what they own as the finest possessions and not as frivolous things. The social system of Brave New World and the World. The American community today shares many similarities, but it is different in one essential respect: the people in the novel are mechanized and do not have control over their actions. They are edited to never ask, but/10484398)