Bruce Dawe Consumerism

Bruce Dawe’s poems “Katrina”,” A Victorian Hangman Tells His Love”, “Homo Suburbiensis “ and “Enter Without So Much As Knocking” depict life and death through the use of similar poetic techniques such as metaphors, imagery, onomatopoeia, tone and similes, although, with different circumstances. The events in these four poems evoke emotions within the reader, the most common being sadness and frustration. These emotions are explored, in all four poems, through the tone of melancholy.

The arrival of the new child is a fundamental change to the lives of the entire family, but his departure is tantamount to the execution of the heart. The upheaval of life is immeasurable. Everyone will test the end, but each one will die in a different way. Bruce Dawe constructed his opinion about life and death through his poems “Enter Without Such as Knocking” and “Homecoming” to show that the life is too short, and it forces every single one to live under its harsh conditions until the last breath. In his poems, Dawe describes social issues in the life cycle that affect several people. In “Entering Without Such as Knocking," Dawe describes the death of a selfish man who optimistic about losing himself and his family for money. In "Homecoming," Dawe characterized the death of young soldiers who sacrificed themselves without fearing the death. Ultimately, in both poems, death is the fact that any machine will eventually fail.

Bruce Dawe is one of the most inspirational and truthful poets of our time. Born in 1930, in Geelong, most of Dawe’s poetry concerns the common person – his poems are a recollection on the world and issues around him. The statement ‘The poet’s role is to challenge the world they see around them.’ Is very true for Bruce Dawe, as his main purpose in his poetry was to depict the unspoken social issues concerning the common Australian suburban resident. His genuine concern for these issues is

1.Whats consumerism ? Consumerism is defined by the preoccupation of society with the acquisition of consumer goods . Good morning/afternoon fellow classmates , today I’ll be discussing how the powerful images conveyed in Bruce Dawe’s texts Americanized and Abandonment of Autos, and a cartoon by Clay Butler, raise issues and concerns about consumerism.

Dawe is concerned that we have become desensitised to human suffering because it is presented to us as entertainment: a product rather than an issue. The irony is that we have become emotionally distanced from reality even though the world enters our homes via television. The title and the film description are references to 'The Good Earth'' based on a novel by Pearl Buck. Set during the Japanese advance on China during the late 1930s, it contains ideas that the land sustains life and that suffering is rewarded. This poem describes a family viewing the film, complete with the advertisements, and their reaction (or rather, lack of) to it. They never actually see the end as the father trips over the cord in the darkened room.

Bruce Dawe uses expressive language features to show the harshness of his poem. Dawe uses a variety of descriptive words to express his opinion,

In a series of verse paragraphs, Dawe focuses on the 1950’s society with an emphasis on the consumerism, materialism and lack of individualism. He seeks to convince an important issue in the Australian Society-Our consumer driven culture; a culture that defines us through what we buy and consume. The focus of Dawe’s criticism of the consumerism is the family that bought home the baby from the hospital. Dawe portrays it in a satirical way; the family life and the individual lives of the family members who have been dehumanized by such a mercantile society. He instills strong commands when describing his family commodities: “One economy-size Mum, One Anthony Squires-Coolstream-Summerweight Dad along with two other kids straight off the junior department rack.” The warmth of the mum, dad and kids, contrast with the advertising language which describes them. It is as if his mum is the size of a washing machine, the father is summed up by the suit he wears, and the baby siblings have been bought like goodies in an apartment place. Dawe is not saying that this is actually true; he is using metaphors and exaggeration.

As in the beginning of the fourth stanza, the first word of the stanza brings the reader back to a different part of the boy's life and a different event. This new event shows the character as no longer a boy, representing innocence, but in the company of "godless money-hungry back-stabbing miserable so-and-sos". We can tell from this that Dawe is trying to show that the boy has now grown up and has been introduced to the "real world" and is now already a middle-aged man. The phrase "goodbye stars" relates back to the fourth stanza. He must also farewell the "soft cry in the corner"; a farewell to any emotions. It is at this point that Dawe includes the adult voice of the boy. The character speaks the need to care for yourself first and foremost, no need to think about the effect it may have on others, shown in the statement "hit wherever you see a head and kick whoever's down". This harsh change from innocent boy to selfish man is how Dawe is creating the character. The adult man is shaped by his dialogue in the poem. The character has grown up and no longer discusses his family, yet no mention of a wife or children is present until the next stanza, and then only to criticize. This fifth stanza is the first one to portray him as an adult, and Dawe has managed to make the character seem harsh and unkind.

Throughout the text, “Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism” Robbins discusses the effects of consumerism on the modern world today. He emphasizes multiple times how the world no longer lives by what they need but rather by they want. Though this has marked a historical global era to Robbins, it is not necessarily a positive effect on humanity. It is known by the corporations who sell goods to consumers that people have begun to literally glorify their wants into needs very strongly. However, the average adult is not the only target of the schemes since children have become their own category in marketing after psychologists have shown that each child has their own needs and wants. Consequently, after this new marketing tactic everyone

Bruce Dawe, an Australian known poet, born 1930 is still one of the biggest selling and most highly regarded poets of Australia. His ability to write such influential poems has made an impact on a number of people, as each poem can be related to the ordinary living lives of Australians throughout the years. Bruce Dawe's poems are interesting because they comment on the lives of ordinary people. This statement is agreed on. In relation to the statement, three key poems can be linked being Enter Without So Much as Knocking (1959), Homo Suburbiensis (1964) and Drifters (1968).

In this essay I will be outlining consumerism and claims that a consumer society is always a throw-away society. Consumption plays a big part in our lives and causes us to live in divided societies. It may make us feel like we fit in buying new gadgets and clothes and also give us that sense of belonging but we don’t take into account what happens to the old items and packaging. People do not want to look at the problems caused. I will use this essay with the evidence I have read

The chosen article is Two Cheers for Consumerism by James Twitchell. In this article he talks about consumerism, commercialism, and materialism. He argues the stand point of consumers and the role they live by every day. In other hands the critics, Academy, gives the consumers and overview description to their consumers.

Today, it is rare to go through a day without participating in any form of purchasing consumer goods. On the average consumer’s cellphone advertisements bombard the owner on virtually all applications. The advertisements, who’s goals are to sell as much as possible, convince the potential buyer that their lives will be better, simpler, or more productive if they purchase the company’s merchandise. The objects a consumer purchases and the activities they participate in during their everyday lives are not random. Manufactures and advertisers create unconscious social behaviors for large corporations. In actuality, objects are a myth used by producers to sell more products for profit. Living in a consumer-dominated society leads to the detritions

The most extreme form of submission to the new order of society, centered around objects and “waves and radiation” (DeLillo 1) is Mink, who represents the epitome of consumerism culture. The description of Mink by Lentricchia on page 113 covers the descriptions of the novel perfectly. “Sitting in front of the TV, throwing fistfuls of Dylar at his mouth, babbling, Willy Mink is a compacted image of consumerism in the society of electronic media, a figure of madness, but our figure of madness.” At the same time the author reveals an additional fact about DeLillo’s piece, specifically that it is relevant to our day and age and not a science-fiction novel, but rather a cutting depiction of contemporary life. The next analysis stems from the scene in which Jack attempts to kill Mink for providing his wife with an unapproved substance called Dylar and having an affair with her.

The arrival of the new child is a fundamental change to the lives of the entire family, but his departure is tantamount to the execution of the heart. The upheaval of life is immeasurable. Everyone will test the end, but each one will die in a different way. Bruce Dawe constructed his opinion about life and death through his poems “Enter Without Such as Knocking” and “Homecoming” to show that the life is too short, and it forces every single one to live under its harsh conditions until the last breath. In his poems, Dawe describes social issues in the life cycle that affect several people. In “Entering Without Such as Knocking," Dawe describes the death of a selfish man who optimistic about losing himself and his family for money. In "Homecoming," Dawe characterized the death of young soldiers who sacrificed themselves without fearing the death. Ultimately, in both poems, death is the fact that any machine will eventually fail.