Consumerism is the desire to acquire objects and possessions often beyond our essential needs, just for the sake of acquiring them. The general public feels shopping and consuming a necessity to life. With this in mind consumer companies use this weakness in order to manipulate and influence the public in to believing they need what that particular company is producing. This is evident in Bruce Dawes poems, Americanized and Televista. To support and contrast I will use a cartoon Tram Leunig.
Bruce Dawe expresses his negative attitude towards change through his poems. ‘Televista’ is written in a first person story. The title can be separated into two different words, tele meaning television and vista meaning outlook. The word therefore means television out look, where the word has been exaggerated to show Dawe’s criticism of consumerism. The language used is jargon ‘the many faces of dick emery’ and everyday used words. This allows the audience to relate to Dawes perspective of consumerism and the image he is creating. The opening stanza begins with “she was Sanyo oriented…. He was Rank Arean bred”. This describes the backgrounds of the characters through the use of metaphorical descriptions of tel
The title and word Americanized, shows the influence of America on everything including the author. The British and Australian style of spelling the word is americanised. This poem again is written in a conversational first person context. The use of alliteration “popping” and descriptive writing enable the audience to perceive a clear view of Dawe’s perspective on consumerism, which again is negative. The poem expresses mothers over protective nature towards her child. The mother influences the child through her own belongings and her expectations of him. Americanized is also a metaphor of the USA’s dominance over Australia in the consumer markets.
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