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Study Guide: Signs of Life Analysis

1) The document provides study guide questions for two passages from the textbook "Signs of Life, 8th Edition". The first passage discusses how the American frontier symbolized endless economic opportunity and how this ideal is declining as opportunities dry up. The second passage examines how supermarkets replaced traditional markets by "selling" products through carefully designed packaging rather than human interaction. 2) The second set of questions analyzes the passage on supermarkets and packaging. It notes that packaging plays on consumers' psychology and that people feel an emotional connection to packaging due to its symbolism of their lifestyle. This causes people to overestimate their packaging waste. 3) The last question discusses how describing a person as "packaged"

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4 views2 pages

Study Guide: Signs of Life Analysis

1) The document provides study guide questions for two passages from the textbook "Signs of Life, 8th Edition". The first passage discusses how the American frontier symbolized endless economic opportunity and how this ideal is declining as opportunities dry up. The second passage examines how supermarkets replaced traditional markets by "selling" products through carefully designed packaging rather than human interaction. 2) The second set of questions analyzes the passage on supermarkets and packaging. It notes that packaging plays on consumers' psychology and that people feel an emotional connection to packaging due to its symbolism of their lifestyle. This causes people to overestimate their packaging waste. 3) The last question discusses how describing a person as "packaged"

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LostWillowGate
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Crystal Tse

English 1C
9/6/17

Signs of Life, 8th Edition Study Guide Questions

SOL (pp. 80-86) Shames, The More Factor


1) According to Shames, the frontier symbolizes the awareness of vacant space and
its link to economic promise (82). In this context, the frontier represents endless
opportunity and potential for success. That success has largely been defined
within the economy of America and ones ability to grow in wealth. Although, the
idea of the frontier is no longer literal, the metaphor for endless capital is what
drives the American dream.
2)
1. When More Was More
a. I chose to give section 1 this title because it explains a large historical
influence that seems to be the beginning of this idea of the frontier.
Section 1 includes anecdotes of speculators and their decisions to
create empty towns where the next generation would always ferret
out opportunities that would still be more lavish than any that had gone
before (Shames 81). Back then, the geographic nature of unexplored
land directly correlated to potential wealth and so there literally was
more of the frontier to capitalize on.
2. A Dream in a Dwindling Reality
a. Section 2 of Shames essay places that ideal of boundless opportunity,
measured in money, within the realm of current economic horizons.
Shames compares the earnings of Americans between 1979 and 1983
[as having] declined by 14 percent (84). In this section, Shames
suggests that perhaps Americans should start focusing on successes
measured in other ways, such as happiness, rather than pursue
economic success that is simply drying up.
3. Bracing for the Future
a. In this last section, Shames presents a new view on the 1980s as an
object lesson in how people play the game when there is an awful and
unspoken suspicion that the game is winding down (85). I believe that
this section should be titled as such because the author is suggesting
that America might finally have to accept that there is an end to the
opportunities grounded in wealth.
SOL (pp. 113-22) Hines, Whats in a Package
1) According to Hine, the biggest difference between a traditional market and a
modern supermarket is that in a modern retail setting nearly all the selling is
done without people (114). In a traditional market, there is often a person that is
trying to sell you items, whereas in supermarkets the packages are replaced with
people. It is the carefully designed packages that reach out to the consumers and
actively sell. The supermarkets are filled with packages that speak to the
consumers psyche, as the consumer no longer has to socialize with other humans.
2) People overestimate the amount of their packaging waste because they are more
impacted by packaging than other forms of waste. Packaging is symbolic of a
way of life and wastefulness once the product is gone (Hine 117). As a result
of the symbolic nature of packaging, an emotional relationship exists between the
consumer and their packages. People may feel guilty about throwing away their
packages because they are visual attachments of something that was once so
important. Thus, consumers are more aware and tend to overestimate their
packaging waste.
3) To say that a person or experience is packaged is to complain of a sense of
excessive calculation and a lack of authenticity (Hine 121). When a person
appears packaged, others are acknowledging that the way we present ourselves
is carefully constructed by how we would like to be perceived. Knowing that we
package ourselves, we are able to discern when others are packaging themselves
to the point of being inauthentic. An example of this is our 43rd president George
W. Bush. Bushs public speeches were often viewed as inauthentic because his
body language did not connect with the message of his speech. The American
public held a general consensus that Bush was untrustworthy as a result of this
excessive calculation to appear a certain way.

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