Malls Murdering Marketplace

1264 Words6 Pages
Brittany Stanley Textual Analysis, Final December 11, 2011 Zoino, Thursday Malls Murdering Marketplace? In the essay Enclosed. Encyclopedic. Endured. The Mall of America, by David Guterson, the author first describes the mammoth size of the Mall of America. He goes on to discuss the addicting effect it has, as well as the stupefying illusion it has on you while you are inside it. The differences of marketplace and Mall-World are discussed. The icon of America or America itself is asked and the mall hysteria is discussed. The disappearance of regular malls are effected by the litany of specialty stores that are popping up across the country, and the production of more “super-malls” means that the smaller ones will never succeed, and also that these “super-malls” must compete even harder by not only making these places vast and sundry, but also fun and adventurous. The Mall of America is enticing to a lot of Americans. The sheer size of the mall is 4.2 million square feet (105), the volume of people, and the large aggregate of retailers it encompasses, 350 storefronts were leased at the time (106), would seem like quite an adventure to anybody. Just watching the people is enough for some, for some it is actually the shopping that gives them their buzz, and some more dedicated mall-rats would say it is the mall itself that is addicting. “It’s a sickness. It’s like cocaine or something; it’s a drug.” says Kathleen, a frequent mall shopper (108). The mall is tantalizing to anybody, it attracts and then holds the attraction. What I got out of the essay was that he was asking, and supporting the matter of, the murder of marketplace by malls. . The Mall of America is far different then the marketplaces of Persia or Greece, these marketplaces were part of life, not the focus of it. “Rural Americans traditionally looked forward to the excitement and sensuality of
Open Document