The Concept of Malls as a Reflection of American Culture - Essay Example

In the articles “Shopping for American Culture” written by James J. Farrell, and “The Mall As Prison” written by David Guterson, the current discourse hereby asserts that malls, with their combination of hundreds of stores, numerous restaurants, and amusement parks are the epitome of American culture, representing what entire America stands for commercial art, materialism and places of psychological refuge.

Shopping malls are replete with commercial art. Farrell specifically attested that “shopping requires a biological being to enter an architectural space outfitted with commercial art and designed to sell artifacts manufactured and distributed in a market economy” (par. 7). After confirming malls as structures containing commercial art, Farrell corroborated the statement by asserting that “malls are also art galleries, carefully crafted collections of commercial art… (and are likewise) museums of contemporary American material culture” (pars. 10–11). These statements confirmed that shopping malls become reservoirs of commercial art in terms of the diversity of products and services being displayed, offered, and designed in manners that are synonymous with forms of art: through product designs, packaging, promotional campaigns, product displays, and even the architectural structures that house these varied products. Concurrently, malls also serve as cultural institutions (Farrell) where some strategically designed and allotted spaces become venues for the display of artworks, current events, social and cultural endeavors, and an exchange of community work that aims to reach out to others and serve diverse civic or social responsibility objectives. More importantly, as revealed by Guterson, when he visited the Mall of America in Minneapolis, the external description of the edifice resembled a magnificent artwork, to wit: “The Mall of America had been imagined by its creators not merely as a marketplace, but as a national tourist attraction” (par. 4). The grandiose design, the expansively sophisticated space, and the vividly colorful aesthetic features make malls themselves as perfect symbols of commercial art: in structural design as well as in the products and services offered therein.

Likewise, shopping malls are the embodiment of materialism. As Farrell had enunciated, “the average American of today consumes twice as many goods and services as the average American of 1950 and ten times as much as a counterpart from 1928” (par. 5). This information is a manifestation of the depth and intensity of consumerism, as evidenced by the magnanimity of products or services being consumed for personal and professional interests. Everything anyone needs seems to be made readily available in various stores and shops within the mall. In addition, there has been an emphasis on the “natural human impulse to dwell in marketplaces or urge to buy, sell and trade” (Guterson, par. 16).
Finally, malls are places of psychological refuge. As acknowledged by Farrell, “shopping itself can be therapeutic, even fun, whether or not anything ends up in the shopping bag” (par. 6). In addition, Farrell also admonished that as a place of psychological refuge, malls provide opportunities to enrich one’s identity, “a secure sense of self, a set of social relationships, a deeper sense of community, an expression of who we are and who we would like to be” (par. 18). The uplifting feeling gained by shoppers, visitors, or just mere spectators as they go to the malls for varied reasons confirms serving psychological refuge. Likewise, the fact that malls provide diverse forms of entertainment confirms that they serve a distinct psychological need to be appeased, calmed, entertained, or relieved of the anxieties and stress of daily life. Thus, shopping malls have evolved from the feature of merely providing products and services to be consumed, as required, to spending time away from stressors and from the deluge of everyday pressures in a more convenient, accessible, and unintimidating way.

Overall, the discourse has successfully validated that malls are indeed the epitome of American culture, through embodying cultural facets that delve into them as an effective medium of commercial art, symbols of materialism, and places of psychological refuge. How shopping malls have evolved through time effectively manifested that malls are reflections of culture: a people’s way of life. When one visits a mall, for instance, one seems to be engulfed by the grandeur of the architectural structure and mesmerized by everything that captures the shoppers’ senses. Read More