Gollum and the Ring

Gollum and the Ring

 

“Our economy is based on spending billions to persuade people that happiness is buying things, and then insisting that the only way to have a viable economy is to make things for people to buy so they’ll have jobs and get enough money to buy things.”-Philip Slater

 

                After watching the film “Clueless” as well as reading Min Jin Lee’s, “Free Food for Millionaire’s,” we notice that there are many parallels between the two.  Such parallels include explorations of the lifestyles of the upper echelon, navigating complex relationships, and the obsession of objects.  In this essay we will be focusing on the idea of object obsession and how these objects impact the identities of the individuals.

                We will begin by exploring the positive effects that both the pursuit, as well as the acquisition, of objects has the individual.  One of the more striking parallels that we see between the film and the selected text is the way in which the female protagonists solve their frustrations, shopping.  When Clare is frustrated with her life/job at Kearne Davis she alters her mood by going out and purchasing expensive clothes (Lee).  The “Clueless” protagonist  displays the same reaction when she receives a bad grade in her class and asks her friend to go shopping with her.  Why do these two characters do this?  One possible explanation would be that the women are attempting to build a sense of efficacy.  Efficacy is the beliefs that you possess the ability to change something.  This idea works well for both of the protagonists.  Clare cannot change Ted and Cher cannot change her grade (at the time).  Thus, both women chose to chance something in which they had the power to do, which was their clothing and thereby attaining a sense of empowerment.

                Next we will examine some of the negative effects of object obsession on the protagonists.  While it is important for both women to attain a sense of empowerment over their negative circumstances, attaining empowerment through the use of object acquisition is not without negative effects.  For example, Clare has a variety of problems from living with Ted, having an unfaithful partner, and working at a difficult job.  To gain a sense of empowerment Clare purchases expensive clothing.  However, Clare’s solution to her problems is unsustainable due to her increasingly high debt accumulation which forces her to commit undesirable actions such as having intercourse with a boss at Kearne Davis in order to get a job.  This idea of object obsession holds back Cher as well, which is evidenced in the part of the film when Cher gets held up by gunpoint and her assailant tells her to get on the ground.  Cher informs the man that she cannot due to wearing expensive clothing and her desire to not ruin it.  Though Cher finally succumbs to the robbers demands, for a brief moment Cher valued her clothes more than her life.

                Upon examining both the positive and negative effects of object obsession we can ultimately conclude the matter will remain complex.  While it is easy to pick up extreme examples of object obsession from our protagonist examination, who we should ultimately be conducting is a self-audit.  What are the objects that provide us a sense of empowerment and how can they also be detrimental?  There are many common objects that fall into both of these classifications such as money, clothing, television, etc.  While it is true we all need money, we must also not forget our sense of generosity.  It is through the reading/watching of films and literature that we can examine these characters with their faults which ultimately allows us to examine ourselves as to ensure we avoid their mistakes.