Good Morning Mrs Parkinson and fellow students today I will try to better your knowledge of consumerism. First of all, what is Consumerism? The Macquarie Dictionary defines consumerism as a movement that aims to educate and inform society and protect them from dishonest trading practices. .
During my study of Consumerism I have found two related texts along with two of Dawes poems, which aim to criticise, caution, persuade and educate readers. The texts include "Enter Without so much as Knocking", "Abandonment of Autos", an article from Sunday Metro "A wacko spend by Jacko" and a Leunigs cartoon.
Dawe wants us to analyse ourselves and the way we live, being aware of how the media and our material society manipulate us. His poetry explores aspects of our contemporary world that concerns all life uncertainty, our achievements, war and love, our values and weaknesses.
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"Enter So Much as Knocking" is a poem that both criticises and cautions readers to the nature of consumerism and the effects of a consumer society. Dawe uses satire to show his disapproval of the way consumer society values possessions and material objects over life. .
Also the use of exaggeration informs us that consumer society offers no spiritual values, which can lead to the dependence on consumables. The poem shows the life cycle of a man exposed to consumer culture and how meaningless his life was. .
In this related Leunigs cartoon, we see a father and son watching TV rather than out the window. This relates to the poem Enter Without So Much as Knocking as it shows that society is so caught up with consumables, they would rather watch images portrayed to them by a TV instead of witnessing the real thing. .
This cartoon shows how dependent society is on materialistic objects and how entrapped society has become in consumer cultures. In the cartoon the baby is brought up in a consumer culture from a very young age.
The article "A wacko spend by Jacko" from the Sunday Metro, London relates to consumerism.