Week 4 Discussion

1)What would Jesus Buy did have a valid point--although it was exaggerated--because it depicted the ways in which America is positively run by consumerism--especially the Christmas holiday. It also touched on the sweat shops and the horror humanity side behind this consumer culture. I agree that many times we simply buy things to fill some empty space or some need for identity. It's like we compare our selves and create our identity based on what we do or don't have compared to what other people do or don't have.
2)Fight Club is in many ways a critique on consumer culture. The narrator, Edward Norton's character, is consumed in the beginning of the film with buying various clothes and furniture--he compiles his identity by buying new things. However, it is apparent that he hates this part of his life as he unknowingly creates a second personality--Tyler, or Brad Pitt's character, who is completely adverse to consumer culture and eventually creates a mob type organization to take down commercialized/consumer culture. We realize that Tyler--the psycho second personality that is created by the narrator in an effort to make an identity for himself--something besides his the identity he has built with his consumed products--however this new identity becomes just as destructible as the first.