tion of what he is buying. “I shopped for it’s own sake, looking andtouching, inspecting merchandise I had no intention of buying, then buying it....I tradedmoney for goods. The more money I spent, the less important it seemed. I was biggerthan these sums. These sums poured off my skin like so much rain. These sums in factcame back to me in the form of existential credit” (84). The consumer obtains morefulfillment from the act of spending money, not from what they are actually purchasing(Ferraro 21). Not paying attention to what is being spent is very common of theconsumer. Americans live with a lot of denial about their spending patterns and whenquestioned, 65% of Americans agreed that “in looking back on my spending, I oftenwonder where the money goes.” (Schor 82). Juliet Schor, a writer on consumerism andoverspending states, “we spend more than we realize, hold more in debt than we admitto, and ignore many of the moral conflicts surrounding our acquisitions” (Schor 83). This gives some reasoning to when Jack says, “I shopped with reckless abandon. Ishopped for immediate needs and distant contingencies” (83).White Noise clearly illustrates how consumerism is constantly invading the livesof a post-modern family living in a post-modern society. From when we wake up in themorning to when we lie our heads down to go to sleep, we are bombarded withconsumerism. Consumerism is in the supermarkets we buy our food in, in the food weeat, and in the shopping malls we walk through. While it may be argued that life wouldbe rather dull and monotonous without consumerism, the fact that it is literallyeverywhere in today’s society and is so hard to avoid is a bit overwhelming. Because it isso hard to avoid, it is up to the family and the individual to use consumerism to benefitthem instead of let it hurt them before it destroys the family structure. ...
