Cameron Roberts
Sister Cowley
English 150
15 July 2009
Space
UFO's, aliens and spaceships, according to Barbara Ehrenreich, extra-terrestrials along with Wal-Mart, are on-route to go through with their evil plan to invade planet earth and destroy all of the inhabitants. Barbara Ehrenreich feels very strongly that the world-famous company known as Wal-Mart is going to eventually overrun every business in the United States, and take over the planet. To fully understand her viewpoints concerning the atrocities of Wal-Mart, one must first analyze her roots. Barbara Ehrenreich is a feminist, democratic socialist, and political activist with very firm viewpoints. In addition to this she is a widely read columnist and essayist, and the author of nearly 20 books published world-wide. Keeping all this in mind, it is helpful to note that she is a passionate writer who likes to voice her opinions.
To further articulate her points and demonstrate how big of a problem Wal-Mart is to us earthlings, Ehrenreich uses several different writing techniques to her advantage. In order to rally her audience with her to revolt against the oppressive space regime known as Wal-Mart, Ehrenreich employs personification, vivid imagery and allusions to convey her belief that Wal-Mart is a company influenced by evil space-men.
The first tool that Ehrenreich likes to use is personification as it adds to her style as a writer and uniqueness. For starters, the title of her essay "Wal-Martian Invasion," is an instant attention grabber on her audience. This immediately shows the reader that she feels contempt towards the giant corporation. Ehrenreich uses personification to make the work more lively and to further connect with the reader’s emotional side. Another good example of Ehrenreich’s usage of personification is in the quote “But a creature afflicted with the appetite of a starved hyena doesn’t have time for niceties.” Ehrenreich likens Wal-Mart to a hyena, which is a wild-animal notorious for its scavenger tendencies. This technique is very effective in the work because it forces the reader to envision Wal-Mart as a wretched company that is like a hyena in that it manipulates and exploits to get what it wants. The last example of personification lies in the quote “No one knows exactly when the pod landed on our planet, but it seemed normal enough during its early years of gentle expansion.” Ehrenreich compares the founding of Wal-Mart to the beginning of a seemingly friendly space invasion of earth, which eventually turns malicious. This quote is so effective because it makes the reader feel duped, like they should have realized what was evolving out of this company. As a result of this the reader sides with Ehrenreich furthermore, and thus Ehrenreich establishing her Ethos for the rest of the essay.
Another technique Ehrenreich uses to convince the reader to ally with her is vivid imagery. Throughout this particular essay, Ehrenreich is constantly painting a picture in the reader’s head in order to assist in complete understanding of how astronomical she believes this Wal-Mart threat to really be. One good example of her using vivid imagery is contained inside the quote “by the year 4004, every square inch of the United States will be covered by supercenters.”With this particular line, Ehrenreich designs a near Doomsday-like picture. A world with no tall trees, or even green grass is an image that’s near haunting. However, it’s one that Ehrenreich constructs in order to get her reader fearful of a world to come that would be nothing like anyone has ever seen. By doing this, Ehrenreich gets the support of her audience by citing a universal fear as something that’s completely possible if things were to stay the same. Which at the same time she also establishes her Pathos for the paper by attacking the reader’s fear, and thus appealing to the reader’s emotions “Wal-Mart will be in trouble long before that, of course, because with everyone on the planet working for the company or its suppliers, hardly anyone will be able to shop there.” This quote is another great example of Ehrenreich appealing to the reader’s emotions. By saying this in the essay, she forces the reader to imagine a world of conformity and uniformity, which is designed to inject fear, thus convincing the reader to desire to take a stand against a world dominated by Wal-Mart. Another mental image this quote creates is one of speculation. Ehrenreich makes the reader view a working-class enslaved by Wal-Mart, and forced to work and suffer for this perpetually-growing company. By creating these intimidating visual images, Ehenreich gets the emotional support of the reader.
Another tool that Ehrenreich likes to use is allusions. She alludes to several things throughout the short essay, but opens with references to the 2004 presidential election. With this first allusion, Ehrenreich confirms any doubts for her support of the Democratic Party and its candidates. “Now the conflict’s gone national as a presidential campaign issue, with John Kerry hammering the mega-retailer for its abysmally low-wages and Dick Cheney praising it for its ‘spirit of enterprise, fair dealing and integrity.’” Throughout the essay, ehrenreich bashes Wal-Mart, and makes it safe for the reader to conclude that Ehrenreich is aligned with the Democratic Party. Nevertheless, the real intention of Ehrenreich by opening up with this quote is to show how this issue has gone global, heating up both sides of the spectrum. It works as a nice prelude to her piece, laying down the grounds for her controversial issue she is a bout to tackle.
Barbara Ehrenreich is a firm critic of Wal-Mart. She makes it known to all who read her piece that she believes now is the time to change before this corporate titan expands anymore, and gets further out of the people’s control. In attempt to rally her audience with her and revolt against the oppressive space regime known as Wal-Mart, Ehrenreich employs personification, vivid imagery and allusions to convey her belief that Wal-Mart is a company influenced by evil space-men.
