y the number oftimes I’d seen him on campus. (35)Even Jack’s daughter, Denise, runs into a group of friends during one shopping trip. They all gather together to look at books and talk. Jack also has many significantconversations with Murray while casually strolling up and down the aisles of thesupermarket. On one such occasion, Murray tells Jack how happy he is to be “inBlacksmith, in the supermarket, in the rooming house, on the Hill” (36). He continues tosay “I feel I am learning important things every day. Death, disease, afterlife, outerspace. It’s all much clearer here. I can think and see” (36). With Murray expressing his feelingsto Jack, it is almost as if these encounters at the supermarket are replacing customarysocial time. Aside from being a meeting grounds, the supermarket is filled with manyconsumer goods conveniently in bulk. Jack describes this in one of his many trips to thesupermarket:There were six kinds of apples, there were exotic melons inseveral pastels. Everything seemed to be in season,sprayed, burnished, bright. (36)This kind of abundance of goods is seen in just about everywhere. Ten years ago, mostsupermarkets stocked about nine thousand items and now today’s stores carry over 24thousand (Wolkormir). Most of these items come from a can or box and can be cookedin the microwave or require no cooking at all. This explains why the number of hoursparents spend cooking is going down at an increasingly rapid rate and why McDonald’sso proudly displays outside their restaurants, “Over 1 Billion Served.”Fast food restaurants play a big role in today’s growing consumerism. Americansenjoy more restaurant prepared food than ever before. Carrie Reynolds, a fast foodrestaurant consultant says, “we eat out today more because it fits our high-speed,consumer-mad lifestyles”(qtd. in Silver 42). Almost half of every dollar spent in 1999was ...
