spent eating out, and that figure is expected to up 53% by 2010 (Silver 40). TheGladney’s are seen eating restaurant prepared food frequently, whether it be Chinesetake-out night or dinner in a car outside of a commercial strip of fast food restaurants.This is common for families, especially because it is convenient for the parents busyschedules. Fast food may be convenient and seems great at the time, but in the long run,can eventually kill. One in five children between the ages of six and seventeen isoverweight and if current trends continue, nearly half of today’s children will eventuallydie of heart disease (Austin). Yet parents continue to encourage their children to take partin the consumption of fast food. On one night, when no one wanted to cook, the Gladneyfamily went to a place that “specialized in chicken parts and brownies” (220). Theydidn’t even bother to go inside and eat at a table:We decided to eat in the car. The car was sufficient for ourneeds. We wanted to eat, not look around at other people. We wanted to fill our stomachs and get it over with. Wedidn’t need light and space. We certainly didn’t need toface each other across a table as we ate, building a subtleand complex cross-network of signals and codes. We werecontent to eat facing in the same direction, looking onlyinches past our hands. (220-221)This incident shows how the Gladney family has gotten caught up in the act ofconsumption. Dinner, at one time, was a sacred time for families. It was a time when theycould get together and have conversations and enjoy each others company. Now, for apost-modern family such as the Gladney’s, the main focus is just to quickly fill theirstomachs and then continue on with their busy schedules.Shopping malls also play an active participant in consumerism. The malldepicted in White Noise, the Mid-Village Mall is described as being “a ten-storybuilding arranged aro...
