narrative essay

English 101 Date Assigned:

Spring 2014 Foults Peer Review Date:

Due Date:

Essay 1: Consumption

After reading Barthes’ “Toys”, Postrel’s “In Defense of Chain Stores”, and Kim’s “End

of Spam Shame” in Reading Pop Culture, you will write a narrative essay about consumption.

The authors and Pop seem to define consumption as buying and using goods- but also as using

parts of culture- and how that effects identity. Your four-page, thesis-driven, and well-

developed essay will discuss an act of consumption and how that act represents part of your

identity. Basically, how does an object say something about who you are?

Tell me the story of this object (how you came to have it, how you use it) and what it

means for you and to you. For example, if you are a runner, you can write about running shoes.

How do these shoes and buying these shoes say something about your identity and how you live

your life? The most successful essays usually feature a very meaningful object to the author.

Think of Kim and Spam- this food product was much more than just a food her family cooked

with; Spam was representative of part of her culture that she had been made to feel ashamed of.

She then discussed how she did not want to feel shame about eating this product and would not

feel shameful any longer. Kim’s article is a good example of a narrative essay- complete with

thesis.

You do not need to do any research for this essay.

Minimum requirements:

 Narrative features

 Thesis- driven

 Well-developed support

 MLA format

 4 page minimum (4 full pages)

 Works Cited page if necessary