Consumer Myths Frye's Taxonomy and The

8/12/2019 Consumer Myths Frye's Taxonomy and The

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Journal of Consumer Research, Inc.

Consumer Myths: Frye's Taxonomy and the Structural Analysis of Consumption TextAuthor(s): Barbara B. SternSource: Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Sep., 1995), pp. 165-185Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2489810.

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2/22

onsumer

M y t h s :

F r y e s

Taxonomy a n d t h e

Structural Analysis

o

Consumption

T e x t

BARBARA B. STERN*

This article presents a structural analysis of myths in consumption text, using North-

rop Frye's taxonomy of mythoi

to assign consumer narratives and selected adver-

tisements to four categories of mythic plots: comedy, romance, tragedy,

and

irony.

Frye's categorization scheme derives from literature, and the plot types embody

structural

links

between consumption myths

and those found

in other

cultural texts.

Each

mythos

also

incorporates

values encoded

in the

plot

that

reappear

in

con-

sumption

narratives and in

advertising appeals using mythic patterns

and charac-

terization. Frye's taxonomy is

first applied to a reanalysis of Thanksgiving narratives

in

Wallendorf and Arnould's "'We

Gather

Together': Consumption

Rituals of

Thanksgiving Day"

and

next

to an

analysis

of

pre-Thanksgiving

food

advertising

coupons.

The

analysis

demonstrates that the Thanksgiving narratives

and

related

advertising exemplars fit into conventional plot structures that serve as organizing

devices for both the articulation of

consumption experience

and the

design

of con-

sumer appeals.

What is the secret of

[a

myth's] timeless

vision?From what profundityof the mind

does it derive? Why is mythology every-

where the same, beneath its varieties of

costume?And what does it teach?

CAMP-

BELL

1949] 1973,

p.

4)

Why do we need stories?To this may be

added

wo morequestions,Whydo

we need

the "same" story over and over? Why is

our

need

for more stories never satisfied?

(MILLER

1990,

p.

68)

he centralculturalrole of myth-defined as a nar-

rative

"tale or

story"1

and

derived

from

the

Greek

mythos

Abrams

1988,

p.

1 11)

stems from its function

in

explaining the nature of

the world and the rationale

for social

conduct

in

a given

culture.

Myths

are

a cul-

ture's

body

of

hereditary stories

that

make

up

a

my-

thology,

whose roots

lie

in

the

primal

seasonal

and

bio-

logical narratives about the recurrent

life

cycle

of

birth

and

death. These

narratives, including consumption

stories,

shape

both

the structure

and content of the

cul-

ture's

story

stock.

According

to

myth

critics

(see

Stern

1989)

such as

Joseph Campbell (1970),

Mircea Eliade

(1954), and Robert Graves ([ 1948] 1972), ancient myth

formulas evolved into modern genres (i.e., types or

families of related

works, such as comedy or tragedy)

typical of cultural narratives (see Fowler

1982). Myth

criticism

reached its apex in Northrop Frye's Ana-

tomy

of

Criticism

([1957]

1973),

an

integrative

work

that aimed at the

comprehensive classification of all

myth narratives into

four great categories associated

with nature's seasons

and the human life cycle: co-

medy/spring (birth),

romance/summer (growth, ges-

tation), tragedy/autumn (maturity),

and

irony/winter

(death).

Frye's work was revolutionary in breakingthe barriers

of isolation

that New Critics such as

Cleanth

Brooks,

John Crowe Ransom,

William

Empson,

and

others had

erected

between

individual

works, proposing

instead a

single monomythic pattern unifying

Western

cultural

*Barbara B. Stern is professor of marketing at Rutgers, The State

University of New Jersey, Faculty of Management, Newark, NJ 07102.

The author thanks Melanie Wallendorf and Eric Arnould for their

helpful advice and permission to use the two unpublished quotations.

She also thanks the reviewers and the associate editor for kind and

constructive advice. The Rutgers University

Research Council

par-

tially funded this research.

'Various scholars across disciplinary fields have used the terms

"myth," "ritual," and

"archetype" in so many ways that some disen-

tanglement of

semantics is needed. According to many critics (see

Manganaro 1992), the term "myth" includes ritual, defined as "mul-

tiple behaviors that

occur in fixed episodic sequence and

that

tend

to be repeated

over time"

(Rook 1985, p. 252),

although which came

first continues to be

a subject of debate. Discussion of myth often

includes the term "archetype,"

which derives from the Platonic con-

cept

of

archetypos,

or

original forms,

and has been adopted

into lit-

erary criticism

from Jungian psychology. This term refers to clusters

of images or symbols originating

in

dreams (Duncan

1983). When

archetypal patterns

achieve narrative

expression

in

waking life, they

are

ordinarily

called "myths." In Troy's

words,

myth is

"the

carto-

graph of the perennial human situation, the more appealing for being

concrete,

the more

persuasive

for

being

not subject to

final

analysis"

(1967, p. 42). That is, "myth" refers to a structured

narrative record,

"archetype" to

the underlying symbol transmuted

from the dream

to life, and "ritual"

to

the repetitive sequence of

behaviors referenced

in

mythic narratives.

? 1995by JOURNALOF CONSUMERRESEARCH, nc.

0

Vol. 22

*

September

995

All rights eserved.

093-5301/96/2202-0004$2.00

165

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3/22

166 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH

products. His theory develops a myth taxonomy using

the Greek terms mythos and mythoi. It is indebted to

prior research in anthropology (Frazer 1959; Levi-

Strauss 1963) and

in

psychology (Campbell 1973; Freud

[1913] 1952; Jung [1916] 1959; see Vander Veen 1993).

Since

the 1960s, scholars in many disciplines have

studied myths (see Campbell 1970; Gould 1979; Kirk

1970; Loriggio 1990; Vickery 1966), including those

doing consumer behavior research (Belk, Wallendorf,

and Sherry 1989; Hirschman 1987; Levy 1981; Rook

1985; Sherry 1987) and advertising research (see Ber-

man

1981; Leiss, Kline, and Jhally 1986; Leymore 1975;

Randazzo 1993). In these disciplines, the term "myth"

is defined as it is in literature: a "tale commonly told

within a social group" (Levy 1981, p. 51).

Most consumer research has

focused on the content

of

myths (see

Belk

et al. 1989; Levy 1981; Wallendorf

and

Arnould 1991).

When

past consumer research has

considered mythic structure-the "poetics" '(Clifford

and Marcus 1986) or "how" of narration-the analysis

(see Hirschman 1988; Holbrook and Grayson 1986)

has

followed

Levy's pioneering

use

of

Levi-Strauss's

binary oppositions (Levi-Strauss 1963;

and see Gould

1979)

as

descriptors

of

the

mythic pattern. Levy's study

drew

on

structuralism

to

analyze

the

oppositions

in

consumer stories that

reflect

a "universal

metalan-

guage"

acted

out

in

everyday

culture

(1981, p. 52).

However, no structural

characteristics

other

than

those

expressed by binary oppositions (often

termed

"con-

flict") are examined

in detail.

Thus,

the structural

as-

pects

of

consumption myths

with

regard

to

patterns

other

than

"the

perception

of

opposites" (Levy 1981,

p. 51) are ripe for exploration.

The link

between myths, consumer values, and ad-

vertising is also an important area for research; this area

of

inquiry

has

been somewhat neglected, perhaps be-

cause

more

attention

has

been focused

on the

mea-

surement

of values

(Kahle, Beatty,

and Homer

1986;

Kamakura and Mazzon

1991;

Kamakura and Novak

1992) than on their mythic associations. Nonetheless,

different

mythic genres encode

different

values-de-

fined

(Rokeach 1973) as preferred modes of conduct

(means) and life goals (ends). Each genre presents a typ-

ical

hero, plot, and outcome, often recognizable as

a

descendant of ancient stock reworked

in

advertise-

ments.

I

propose that closer study of mythic plots (Stern

1994), heroes, and values can contribute to better un-

derstanding of consumer behavior by specifying the

notion

of

myths

in

terms of three questions: (1) What

are the

myths that appear

in

consumer narratives? (2)

What are their characteristics? and (3) How do they

surface

in

advertisements?

That

is, my

aim is

to

identify

a

taxonomy of mythic patterns

in

consumer text

and

to trace

the

way

that

those patterns

are

used

to

convey

product benefits and values

in

advertising appeals (Pol-

lay 1986; Randazzo 1993). Insofar as values are embed-

ded

in

the

original mythoi

that define

product

use

(i.e.,

the "correct" way to use things), they can endow prod-

ucts

with a

positive

valence. Closer

examination of the

myths

in

the

stories

that

consumers tell can help to

uncover

the consumer

values

that

advertising stories

tap. Thus, this article uses Frye's theory to analyze con-

sumer myths

from

a literary perspective. This vantage

point permits elucidation of the values expressed in the

mythic plots

that

consumers

select

and enables closer

analysis of advertisements based on different values and

positioned

to

appeal

to

different

market

segments

(Kennedy, Best,

and Kahle

1989).

I

begin with Levy's question:

"If

consumer responses

are

stories

(or parts thereof)

.

. .

how

shall the stories

be interpreted?" (1981, p. 50). This is answered with

another

question: "If

we

call

consumer

responses sto-

ries, what kinds of stories are they?" Frye's theory of

interpretation (Loriggio 1990) addresses this question-

the how

of

myth telling. By looking

at

the connection

between myths

in

consumer

stories and those

in

literary

and other cultural

texts,

we

can

read

consumption

text

more knowledgeably. In so doing, we can enrich our

understanding

of

consumers,

who

reveal emotional re-

actions to experiences by means of the kinds of stories

they tell.

Frye's taxonomy provides a framework

for

plot anal-

ysis by identifying

four

mythoi-pregeneric

narrative

categories-into

which Western

mythic

stories fit. Each

category represents

an

aspect

of the

central

monomyth

(1973) of birth/death/rebirth associated with nature's

seasons

and the

human

life

cycle.

The

common

ancestry

of Western cultural

texts suggests

that consumer

myths

will also conform

to these

categories,

for

they

determine

the available plot patterns. Just as mythic images are

"hard-wired into the human species" (Randazzo 1993,

p. 35), so, too, are mythic plots. Frye's taxonomy sit-

uates these

plots

in

relation to narrative structures

typ-

ical of

a

culture.

In

this

way,

it

allows

interpretation

of

consumer

myths

to extend

beyond

identification

of

the

binaries

by specifying

structural laws that

link

cultural

plots and values with both consumption stories and ad-

vertising

text.

The

article

begins

with

a

definition of

consumer

myth

and a

discussion

of

Frye's taxonomy

of

plots, illustrating

each

category

with

examples

from

published

consumer

protocols.

Each

category

is

next

used

to

unpack

the

consumption

narrative

in

terms of

the values

embedded

in

the

plot

and then

to

explore

advertising messages designed

to

appeal

to those

values.

FRYE'S THEORY OF MYTHOI AND

NARRATIVE

ANALYSIS

In

order to

unpack consumer myths, let

us

accept

Levy's context-relevant definition of them

as

stories

in

"consumer

protocols

. . .

that

use

a

sociocultural

vo-

cabulary" (1981, p. 60). However,

let us then

turn

to

Frye's terminology (i.e., mythos

and

mythoi)

to describe

the structural characteristics that form

the

basis

of this

article's

analysis.

In his

usage, mythos

refers

to

the

or-



4/22

STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF CONSUMPTION

TEXT

167

ganizing plot

design shaping the how of narration. It

also references

a

plot's fundamental

values,

for different

plots

presume different values. In terms of Rokeach's

terminal

values (1973), the differences are as follows:

Comedy

ends

in

joy, and its correspondent value is

happiness; tragedy ends in sadness, and its value is wis-

dom; romance ends in nostalgia, and its value is ideal

peace

or

beauty;

and

irony ends

in

surprise, and its value

is excitement.

Frye

uses the four basic plot patterns as the basis of

''a

comprehensive theory .

.

.

of criticism whose

principles apply to the whole of literature and account

for

every valid type" (1973, pp.

11, 14). Figure

1

shows

the

relationship

of

mythoi to the

seasons, expressed

as

a

double

wheel (see Fowler 1982).

It

depicts a stationary

outer

ring of seasons encircling a

movable inner ring

of

mythoi that can make

a

quarter

turn clockwise

and

counterclockwise.

That

is, each mythoi has submythoi

that move

toward the one on the left

or

on the

right.

Thus,

comedy (spring) blends into romance (summer)

and irony (winter), romance (summer) into tragedy

(autumn) and

comedy (spring), tragedy (autumn)

into

irony (winter) and romance

(summer), and irony (win-

ter) into

tragedy (autumn) and comedy (spring).

Narrative

Analysis: The Method

In

order to map the literary

conventions in the plots

onto the

mythoi

in

consumer

stories,

this article em-

ploys

narrative analysis (Riessman 1993). Here, the

central

object of investigation

is

the story. Following

Levy's suggestion to

view

a consumer

story

as "a

literary

production

we might interpret in ways comparable to

those

of

.

. .

literary

critics"

(1981, p. 49),

I

analyze

narratives to ascertain plots and values in consumer

text much

as would be done

in

a

literary

text

(Mitchell

1990). The procedure is

systematic, and the first step

is

to

identify the

deployment

of

generic plot

elements-

progression

of temporal events ("first this happens, then

that, then that"

[Abrams 1988], p. 139), conflict,

char-

acters,

and outcome-in each

mythos.

The

second

step

is to

identify the elements

in

consumer stories and sort

them

in

terms of conformance to the

mythoi. Using

the

same

taxonomy,

I

take an additional

step

and

sort

rel-

evant advertisements.

The

database for the stories is

a collection of con-

sumer

narratives about

Thanksgiving generated

in

the

course

of

ethnographic

interviews and

published

in

Melanie Wallendorf and Eric J. Arnould's "'We Gather

Together':

Consumption Rituals

of

Thanksgiving Day"

(1991). The published narratives are

augmented by

two

unpublished

ones

from

the

original

data set. Each

story

is

analyzed as a

single datum

to determine its

"goodness

of fit" into

the

taxonomy's

categories.

To

align

with

Levy's

analysis

of food

products (1981)

and the food

orientation of

the

stories, my

source

of

advertisements

is the

coupon

section of a pre-Thanksgiving Sunday

newspaper (New

York

Times,

November

13).

Narrative

FIGURE

1

TAXONOMY:STORIES, SEASONS, AND MYTHOI

SUMMER

SPRING Comedy Tragedy

AUTUMN

Irony

WINTER

analysis

is thus used to examine the

plots of consumer

stories,

to ascertain the associated values, and to de-

scribe

the mythic allusions

in

topical advertisements.

The following sections summarize the mythoi

and apply

them to the

Thanksgiving narratives, beginning

with

comedy,

as

Frye

does.

THE

COMIC MYTHOS:

HAPPY

ENDINGS

The movement of comedy is usually a

movement

from

one kind

of

societyto

an-

other.

At

the

beginning

.

.

.

the

obstruct-

ing characters re

n

charge

of

the play's

so-

ciety,

and the audience

recognizes

hat they

are usurpers. At

the

end .

.

. the device

in

the

plot

that

brings

hero and heroine

to-

gether

causes a new

society

to

crystal-

lize.

. .

The

appearance

of

this

new so-

ciety

is

frequently ignalizedby

some kind

of

party

or

festive

ritual.

(FRYE 1973,

p.

163)

The comic mythos has four characteristics: the tem-

poral progression

deals with the evolution of a

new

so-

cietal

institution;

the conflict

poses

a threat

to

rejuven-

ation, usually

in the form of

obstructing

characters who

represent

the old order

that

must be overcome;

the

characters

representing

the new order are

triumphant;

and the

happy ending

is

signified by

a festive

gathering

(e.g.,

a

banquet,

a

feast,

a

dance).

The

plot's emphasis

on renewal indicates its debt

to the

myth

of

spring,

the

beginning

of the natural

and

human

cycle. Spring

is the



5/22

168

JOURNAL

OF CONSUMER

RESEARCH

season of joy, and the dominant values are those of

happiness, pleasure, and a comfortable life (Rokeach

1973). The communal festivities celebrate the reunifi-

cation of a social group-often a family-in acceptance

of a new social arrangement.

The

plot

movement-its

chronological and causal progression-centers

on the

rejuvenation of outmoded social units by progressive

characters who convert reactionary ones.

One

familiar

source

of

conflict is

the battle between

the

generations,

for a

perennial cyclical pattern

is the

younger generation's challenge to the older one.

The

conflict is frequently reconciled in a conversion scene,

where impeding characters are won over to a new way

of doing things. Comic plots invariably

end

happily (see

Olson

1961), but this does

not

represent

a moral

judg-

ment. Rather, it represents a social one, for comedy

deals

with manners

in

society (not

with

morals,

the

province of tragedy).

Several

Thanksgiving

stories

contain

comedy's

plot

elements and closely

follow its

generic

rules. One ex-

ample is the "dropped turkey" tale (Wallendorf and

Arnould 1991, p. 21).

I

was pregnantwith Christie. was reallybig like Fergie.

I

remember was taking the turkey out of the oven and

dropped t

on

the

floor. Tom

[the informant's

husband]

and his boys heard a big bang and ran upstairs.

I

was

four and one-half months pregnantand looked nine.

I

looked ike I had a big turkeyundermy shirtas my stom-

ach. I

started crying because my beautiful turkeywas

ruined. My stepson scooped up the turkey, put

all the

stuffingback n theturkey,

and

acted ike

it was all

O.K.

because

pregnantwomen get very moody. They

ate it

and said with a smile, "This floor is clean enough to

eat

off

of."

The beginning of human life drives this plot, for the

heroine's pregnancy facilitates the acceptance of

a new

family

unit

(stepmother, stepchildren,

and the future

stepsibling).

The reference to

Fergie ("happily"

married

at the time

of the

story) suggests

that a

newcomer's

challenge to family

values can be overcome. This

occurs

in

the

course of the story,

where a

potential

conflict is

resolved and the feast not "ruined"-the

new

family

unit

triumphs, and

the

stepchildren

behave

kindly

to

their

stepmother.

Unlike

other

stepfamily stories,

this

one has a

happy ending,

and

the

stepmother

describes

her

feelings afterwards: "Nothing's really

more

impor-

tant

than

the

people you

cook

Thanksgiving for,

rela-

tives

and

family" (Wallendorf

and Arnould

1991, p.

21). Here, the threat of social rupture-failure of the

new

family-dissipates,

and

the

new

family

achieves

harmony.

The

story shows that the traditional way of doing

things-the perfect

mother

who cooks and serves a

per-

fect

turkey

need not be

perceived

as the

ideal

or right

way,

but

instead may

be

modified

to suit

evolving

family

traditions.

In

other

stories, danger

is also

averted,

even

if the

food is inedible

("the year

the homemade rolls

tasted

like

baseballs")

or

digestive

messes occur

(a baby's

soiled diaper

[Wallendorf

and

Arnould

1991, pp.

21,

22]).

Younger family

members-children,

newlyweds,

new parents-smooth

over disruptions

and vivify

the

comic spirit by

affirming

the new society. The values

of happiness

and pleasure prevail,

for

Thanksgiving

joy

is sustained

by the goodwill

of the younger

generation,

representatives of a blended family that has evolved as

a contemporary

cultural

alternative

to the

old

nuclear

family.

Insofar as

comic plots must

end happily, advertise-

ments that promise

perfect

outcomes appeal to values

such as

the

desire

to achieve pleasure

and comfort

in

life.

One example is

the Pillsbury products'

cover ad-

vertisement

for pre-Thanksgiving

coupons,

whose copy

states:

"Everything falls

into

place

with the Thanksgiv-

ing

experts. Products you

can trust

for a perfect

Thanksgiving"

(see Fig. 2).

The Pillsbury brands (Green

Giant,

Le

Seuer, Quick

Bread

Mix,

Crescent Rolls,

etc.)

are

shown as

a

family

united

under a

picture

of a

turkey

surrounded by Pillsbury

foods.

The Jones

Sausages'

slogan-"Celebrate the holidays with the Jones Fam-

ily"

-also presents

a family theme (see Fig.

3).

An alternate comic

plot focuses

less on a happy end-

ing

than on the

process

of transformation

that

precedes

it.

Thanksgiving

transformation

stories signal

the en-

largement

of the family

unit

by opening

the

guest

list

to

people

other than

relatives:

neighbors,

pets,

and

drop-

ins.

The transformation plot straightens

out

the details

of this extended family to facilitate

reconstructing

the

holiday celebration

in

a meaningful way,

as distinct

from

repeating outworn

conventions.

The following

story

describes

realignment

of

the

priorities

of extended

families and the ensuing happy

ending (Wallendorf

and

Arnould

1991, p. 22).

Another

year

it

snowed

even harder.We

were

up

there

and had some

other

people

over

from the

neighborhood

after Thanksgiving

dinner. Alfred,

the Moore's

white

poodle,

went outside.

It

was

really snowing

hard and

people

were

drinking

lot and

having

un.

No one noticed

that

the dog

was still

outside. This went

on

all

night.

No

one

heard he dogwhining

at the door to be

let in. About

four hours

later when the

neighbors

were

leaving,

we

openedthe

door and found the dog

frozen stiff, barely

alive. We used blow-driers

o

defrost

him It

was

rather

traumaticat the time.

But

now

we

look

back

and

think

it was

pretty

funny.

The

description

of the actual

event as "rather

trau-

matic

at the time"

but

funny

in

retrospect

shows a shift

that occurs in comic stories as they move counterclock-

wise toward

irony.

The

happy

ending-bringing

back

a near-dead

frozen

dog by

defrosting

him-is an

in-

stance

of

pet/food

transformation

that unites

the

ex-

tended

family

in a festive celebration of

renewal

(life

wins

out over death).

Even

though

the near

death of

the

dog

occurs because

the new

social group forgets him,

it turns

out to be

funny.

In

comedy,

failures of

memory

are correctable.

A

Crescent

coupon

advertisement

shows

the

way:

"For

the

perfect

Thanksgiving,

don't



6/22

'STRUCTURAL

ANALYSIS OF

CONSUMPTION

TEXT

169

FIGURE

2

FALLS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.NTO P14GB

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. ... ...i .. _..EW,N

N NSJVN

Sg^

D

forget he crescents" see Fig.

4). Perfection s promised

if the

consumerremembers o buy a certain

product.

The female figure n

comic Thanksgivingstories is

central o

consumption,

for she has a

dual mission: she

literallypreserves he familyunit

by providing ood and

symbolically

preserves

t

bymakingpeacebetweenhos-

tile factions. The feminine

presence

sustains the

ideal

of a

happy family, for even

when

the

real family is not

happy-riven

by divorce and conflicting

allegiances-

the restorativerole of the

mother

in

Thanksgiving

mother

tales is

analogous

to that of the earth mother

in mythsarticulated

n earlier iterature.

The generalized

aspect of these myths can

be seen

in

the first story's

pregnant

heroine-she comparesherself

with a member

of the royal

family, itself

a modern

variant of mythic

gods and goddesses.

The myth

of the maternalrole equatesgoodnesswith

the

preparation

and servingof ritual foods.

Food sym-



7/22

170

JOURNAL

OF CONSUMER RESEARCH

FIGURE

3

ES onanyjon

s;5Off

Sausage.

I

IDEALER

.

33900 120776

1 I1

L?

I

~~~on

ones

Braunschweigerl

1

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I

M

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m

h

II.

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[ I11 E1- TX 6 81w TI

ig.

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.

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1j

L

-

-

bolizes love, and even when the

heroine is absent-for

example, away at work

on Thanksgiving day-other

family members

feel obligated to replicate her

role, as

the following story

shows

(Wallendorf

and Arnould

1991, p. 23).

[Her father]decided that he must make anothertrip to

the

storefor

crushedpineapplebecause

he had

previously

purchasedchunk pineapple.

The

lime Jell-O dish

Tara

was preparings "always"made

with crushedpineapple.

She and her father did not

want to deviate from

that

pattern

while her mother wasat work.

The ritual

food-a molded Jell-O salad-must

be

prepared exactly as it has always

been. A Constant

Comment tea advertisement

from

Bigelow

illustrates

the

appeal to

conformity:

"

'Constant Comments'

for

50 years-Celebrate the rich, full-bodied

original blend

of

orange and

sweet spice

flavor that has made Bigelow

one of America's favorite

teas for 50 years

. . .

delivering 'constant satisfaction' to each new genera-

tion

of

tea lovers" (see Fig. 5). However,

"each new

generation" may comprise a changed social

unit, and

tea

acts as the

constant.

In

some comic stories, rejuvenation

is expressed by

means of redefiningbehavior prohibited

in everyday life

as

allowable at

a feast. The following story illustrates

the

difference

between ordinary table

manners and Thanks-

giving ones (Wallendorf

and Arnould 1991, p. 20).

[Stuffing s] almost better than

the turkey. My brother

is

a

bigger

freak about it than

I

am. My dad is

pretty

happy with

it. We all like

to take the mashed potatoes

and the stuffing

and kind of

mush them

together.

Dad

even

adds turnips to it. Yeah

that's gross.

I don't eat

turnips. So

we just mush everything

together.

I tend to

make

a mess out of

my plate;

most of my family

is a

little

more neat about

it. Slop it all together.

Sounds

gross,and it looks gross.

This is all

in fun (enjoyment of

grossness), but

hol-

iday observances

may be

more subtle,

for the

comic

mythos includes pensive

plots

in

which

the happy

ending

relates

more to the

participants'

attitudes than

to the

events

themselves.

The following story

reveals

relaxed

casualness (Wallendorf

and Arnould 1991,

P.

19).

The atmosphere urrounding

innerand dessert

was very

relaxed

with minimalconversation.

Norma

s a

very

good

cook

and

everyone

was too

busy

eating

to be talking.

After

dinner

took an even more casualness

o

it. Several

people

headed outside for some

fresh air and to

walk

Gloria and Sam's dog.

In sum, the comic

mythos

presents the

evolution of

a

new

social

unit,

often

a redefined family,

in which

a

happy

ending

is

signified

by

a festive gathering

that

commemorates

renewal. When comedies

move clock-

wise in the opposite

direction

toward romance,

they

relate less

to the social

world of

real experience

and

more to

the nostalgically idealized

world

of the past,

because

the

mythos

passes

into the

romance

quadrant

when the

ending looks to the

past rather

than to the

future.



8/22

STRUCTURAL

ANALYSIS

OF

CONSUMPTION

TEXT

17

FIGURE4

1:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-.....

: e : I

100:.:':;0s~

GIUO

n t s

THE ROMANCE

MYTHOS:

NOSTALGIC

ENDINGS

The romance is nearest

. . . to the

wish-

fulfillmentdream,

and for that

reason t has

sociallya curiouslyparadoxical ole.In ev-

ery

age the ruling ocial or intellectual

lass

tends to project

ts ideals

in some form of

romance,where the

virtuousheroes

and

beautifulheroines

represent he ideals

and

the villains the threats

to their ascen-

dancy.

.

. .

The perennially

childlike qual-

ity

of romance s marked

by its extraordi-

narilypersistent

ostalgia,

ts search or

some

kind of imaginative

olden age

in time or

space.

FRYE

1973,

p.

186)

Whereascomedy

points forward to a new

social order,

romance

points backward,

leaving

the real world

of

present experience

to dwell in the

remembered

one of

an idealized past. The romance mythos has four char-

acteristics: the plot progression

features

a central

char-

acter who engages

in an adventure;

the conflict pits

an

idealized

hero or heroine

against a

villain who blocks

the success of the adventure;

the

central character

over-

comes the obstructive

villain; and

the

story ends

in

nos-

talgic reification

of the past

as better and

richer than

the present. Insofar

as

male-female union

is essential

for

continuation

of the

human race,

the romance my-

thos portrays this relationship

as ideal (romances

end

with the characters

living happily

ever after). Nostalgia

is dominant,

for the characters

are frozen

in time at

a

moment

of supreme

happiness.

In

advertisements

(Stern

1992),

nostalgia

functions

as the means for

re-

creating

the

past

as an imaginative

utopia-a

past

better

than

it

actually

was (Davis

1979).

In this

way, individual

memories

can

be rewritten

to

sustain family continuity

beyond

the life span

of the current

generation

(Levy

1981).

Romances derive

from

fertility

myths

(see Weston's

1920 classic,

From

Ritual

to Romance),

whose

plots

turn

on the

cyclical

repetition of

birth to bring

fertility

to the

wasteland.

The plot

of a romance

encapsulates

the

seasonal myth

of summer

by capturing

an ideal

but

evanescent moment

in

time-the

sexual ripeness

of

youth.

Romance

values

celebrate ideal states-"a

world

of beauty"

or of

peace (Rokeach

1973)

marked by

the

absence

of

conflict.

Frye

is

but one

of

many critics

who

has

noticed the

structural

analogy (see

Duncan

[1983]

for bibliography)

between

romance

and its predecessors,

early religious myths (see Frazer 1959) and dreams (see

Jung

1959).

In dreams, the

villains

are often

sinister

parental

figures,

and

in

religious

myths,

they are

evil

figures

blocking

the hero's achievement

of procreation.

Special

food,

drink,

and utensils

become part

of

the

repertoire

of romantic

heroism

and are

incorporated

into the

recollected

ideal

(e.g.,

the

Arthurian grail).

The

following story

illustrates the

nostalgic haloing

of

tra-

dition

as ideal

(Wallendorf

and Arnould

1991, p.

25).

One

woman recalled sitting

at the kids'

table

at

her

mother's

sister's

house

in Minnesota. She

enjoyed

this



9/22

172

JOURNAL

OF

CONSUMER RESEARCH

FIGURE

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"because you didn't get

yelled at for

not

having

any

manners."She ate only her two favorite oods, rolls and

whippedJell-O, her family's ittle tradition.

Here, nostalgia relates to the

memory of a child's fa-

vorite meal (fats and sweets), one variant of idealized

food that

recurs

in

Thanksgiving stories featuring

tra-

ditional menus (Wallendorf

and Arnould 1991, p. 23).

Our

meal consistedof thetraditional moked urkeydone

on the

grill along with ham, potatoes, corn, cranberry

sauce,

and

pastriesand pumpkinpies.

Thanksgiving inner

s very raditional

t our house,That

is, there is hardlyany deviation

from the original

menu.

The food

servedwas the traditional

Thanksgiving

meal.

Adherence

to tradition idealizes

the past by tacitly

affirming that the unwritten

family rules

are the correct

ones, still worth following.

Note that

these rules are

family specific,

for even when the tradition

is not gen-

eralized throughout

the culture (grilling

a turkey rather

than roasting

it), as long

as it has become part

of the



10/22

STRUCTURAL

ANALYSIS OF CONSUMPTION

TEXT

173

family script,

it can serve as the nostalgic object of ven-

eration.

In

romance (unlike comedy,

where the younger

generation rebels

against the older ones), younger

family

members conform

to the older generations'

traditional

rules. This allows them to become arbiters of societal

authority when

it is their turn. Even

if

societal food

traditions are ignored, romance plots present nostalgic

reminiscences about the food items served

at the orig-

inal family gathering (Wallendorf and Arnould 1991,

p. 27).

All the food was fresh. We grew up on a farm so every-

thing we ate came from our farm. We

didn't raise turkeys

so we either had chicken or a roast. The pies

were home-

made and the vegetables were fresh.

Advertising can appeal to consumers'

nostalgic long-

ing for a recollected ideal past by positioning

a

product

as a

way

to create instant nostalgia.

One

example,

co-

sponsored by Kraft

General Foods and Diamond

Wal-

nut Growers, reads, "Create a holiday

memory with

homemade fudge," and provides a recipe using the wal-

nuts (see Fig. 6). The appeal is couched

in terms of

originating

a tradition (fudge

is not

especially

associated

with

Thanksgiving) rather than adhering

to an extant

one. The benefit is that

if

the consumer purchases

the

correct

ingredients

and follows the recipe, s/he can give

birth to a tradition that

will

become part of

the

family's

memories of an ideal holiday.

An interesting advertisement for Green Giant vege-

tables

illustrates

a direct connection between

the ro-

mance

hero and an

advertising

one. The

Jolly

Green

Giant

has been identified

as a "twentieth century hold-

over of .

.

. numerous ancient

European fertility

symbols" (Sullenberger 1974, p. 56).

However,

there is

an even more direct antecedent in medieval literature:

the

fourteenth-century English poem

Sir

Gawain and

the Green

Knight

(Tolkien

and Gordon

[1936]

1948).

The

Green Knight descends

from earlier Welsh and

Irish

saga heroes,

themselves

descendants

of the

archetypical

Green

Man

in

nature

narratives.

He is a

hero-huge,

green, playful, and

indestructible. When Sir Gawain

cuts off

his head, he rides away

holding

it in

his hands

and later

reappears

undamaged

to test

Gawain's moral

mettle. The Green

Knight's purpose is to teach Gawain

moral

lessons,

and Gawain

survives the

experience.

(Romances do not end

in

death,

as do tragedies.)

The

advertisement

openly references the mythic hero

in

the

slogan

"A

holiday classic

done with a giant

touch"

(see Fig. 7). The Green Giant bears traces of classical

divinity,

conforming

to the ideal of

male

body type

de-

spite

his size and odd hue-he is "the hugest of men,

and

the

handsomest,

too"

(Tolkien

and Gordon

1948,

p. 159). He is also immortal, a heritage of the vegetation

deities who were resuscitated

each

spring.

Romance

values of eternal youth, vigor, and handsomeness reap-

pear

in

advertising's adoption

of the

mythic

hero

to

promote vegetables that connote good

health associated

with the burgeoning of life each spring.

The advertise-

ment's key descriptor-"classic"

-conveys enduring

tradition

rooted in the past (Frye's "imaginative

golden

age")

and able

to be activated

in the

present

by prod-

uct use.

Some romances

feature static

rather than active

plots,

focusing

on a nostalgically

recollected

past

that traps a

fixated central character "in a state of refrigerated

deathlessness"

(Frye 1973, p.

186).

It is interesting that

Frye associates

repetitive motion with

cartoon char-

acters

in comic

strips;

it

also applies

to radio and

TV

soap operas

and romance advertisements

using

the

soap

format (Stern 1991).

One

example

of

repetitive

behavior

is the grandmother's

actions in the

following story

(Wallendorf

and

Arnould

1991,

p. 25).

My [Polish] grandmother

would always

try to serve the

food

while

everyone

else was

eating.

We would all

tell

her to sit

down, but she never

seemed to listen.

The

symbolic association

between food and

love is

an important aspect

of the Eastern

European

immigrant

experience (see Davison and Davison 1994) commem-

orated

in Thanksgiving stories. Reward

stories celebrate

the

new world's

bounty,

a vision of American plenty

that

idealizes the

good

life as

one far removed from

the

penury

of the Old World.

This

plot

is

static,

for the

activities

recur even after the goal is achieved.

In

the

story above,

the Polish

grandmother

behaves as

if

food

can

never be taken

for

granted-she

"always" tries to

fill

already

full

plates.

She does

not accept victory

in

her battle

against

past hunger and repetitively

enacts

outworn

behavior.

One advertisement

that alludes

to the

tendency

to

save

money

even

in

an

environment of

plenty

is for

Kahn's

ham (see Fig. 8).

It states, "Simply

delicious

holiday savings-Simply made . . . to taste good,"

which resonates

with the coupon

cover advertisement's

tag

line,

"Look

inside for

Thanksgiving

savings "

The

persistence

of habits

of thrift amidst

holiday

feasts

sug-

gests

that abundance

is viewed

by

some

consumers not

as a

permanent

state but as

a

temporary one, part

of a

recurrent cycle of

feast and famine paralleling

the nat-

ural cycle.

These consumers evidence the depression

mentality, tending

to be price

sensitive and

fixed in

habits

of thrift formed

decades

ago.

Other

romances

emphasize

more

progressive

behav-

ior

with

plots

that

present

a dialectical

conflict

between

two

idealized main characters-the

protagonist (hero)

versus

an antagonist (an

enemy or a heroine).

Here,

food is a symbol of life-renewing values (Weston 1920),

and

the

past

is

seen as

proof

that

life

will

continue

to

be renewed.

The

hero's residue of divine

ancestry

is

expressed

when he is rewarded

with

special

foods.

The

sacralization

of

special

food

by

restriction to

one oc-

casion

is revealed

in this

story (Wallendorf

and

Arnould

1991, p. 27).

Jake

(seven):

"What

is

this?"

(He says

as

he

points

to a

yam).

Danielle,

Jake's

atunt:

"That's a potato."



11/22

174

JOURNAL

OF

CONSUMER

RESEARCH

FIGURE

..~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

. ..

. .

.

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OL T1

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Ig

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ul.

Jake:"Why s it this color?"

Ma, Jake's

grandmother: Because t's a special kind of

potato. It's a sweet

potato."

Jake:

"Well, I don't like sweet potatoes."

Danielle: "You liked

them last year, Jake."

[Observer's otes:]I find

somethingrather nteresting

n

the

above

conversation about sweet potatoes.

If

sweet

potatoes

are

so special, as Ma said, then

why

did

they

only

eat

them once a year?

Is that

what makes them

so

special?

The phrasing

of the questions alludes

to the divine

associations

of special food, for the dialogue

is

reminiscent

of the four

questions asked at

the Pas-

sover

feast (i.e., the seder), an Old

Testament meal

whose menu commemorates

the Jews' flight

from

Egypt.

Special food as a

reward also links

consumer

stories

to later secular romances

that evolved

out of

classical

and Biblical antecedents.

The rewardsof the

social

world in a secular context are analogous

to



12/22

STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF CONSUMPTION

TEXT 175

FIGURE

7

r

I r F

= < t ^

00U_ UEf:COU

t*1~~~~~~~~~7

those of

eternal life

in

religion and to the

renewal of

natural life.

An

advertisement that implicitly

contrasts everyday

food

with special food is one for

Pillsbury

Bundt Cake:

"A

delicious strawberry cream cheese treat, anytime"

(see Fig. 9). This dessert is unlike typical Thanksgiving

ones

(e.g., pumpkin

pie, apple pie)

and is

not

associated

with

any particular holiday. The

absence of a specific

ritual

association

reminds consumers that they deserve

sweets

on ordinary days as well as on holidays. The

advertisement's lack

of

conformance to

the

Thanksgiv-

ing theme positions it

as a reminder of the importance

of

treats

in

daily life.

To sum up, the

romance mythos endows the -past

with nostalgia

ordinarily focused on a traditional con-

struction of the family. The

plot hinges

on

a

quest that,

when successful,

affirms past values and memories fro-

zen

in

time. But when the

ending

is

ambiguous

rather

than

nostalgic, the

wheel makes a

quarter

turn to the

autumnal mythos of tragedy.

THE

TRAGIC MYTHOS:

AMBIGUOUS ENDINGS

[Tragedy] . . is not confined to actions

that

end

in

disaster.

. .

. The source of

tragic effect

must

be

sought,

as

Aristotle

pointed out,

in the

tragic mythos

or

plot

structure.

.

.

Tragedy

is more

concen-

trated

on a

single

ndividual

. . . the

typ-

ical tragic hero

is somewherebetween the

divine

and the "all too human"

. . .

the

center of

the tragedy s

in

the hero's isola-

tion,

not in a villain's betrayal

. . .

trag-

edy seems

to leadupto an epiphanyof law,

of that which is and must be.

. .

. In its

most elementary form, the

vision of law

operates

as lex

talionis

or revenge. (FRYE

1973, pp. 207-208)

The romance mythos's

nostalgia is inimical

to

tragedy,

for instead

of a

hero sustained by

traditional

ideals, he is doomed by the "epiphany

of law." The

hero's fate

is to suffer, for tragedy

shifts from the social

world to

the personal and/or moral

one, where inter-

nal battles

and self-confrontation prove more

difficult

than overcoming

villains

in

the external world.

The

central plot

characteristics are those set forth

in Ar-

istotle's Poetics (Fergusson

1961): the progression

deals with serious events, often a character's internal

battles;

the conflict

situates the

protagonist

in

op-

position

to

fate,

the

gods, or God;

the

protagonist

is

doomed

by

a fatal

flaw; and

the

ending

is

gory

or,

at

best, ambiguous.

The

plot's emphasis

on disaster

and

death

relates to autumnal

myths,

which echo nature's

seasonal

death.

Autumn is

associated

with

mature

values such

as the achievement of wisdom,

self-

esteem,

and inner

harmony (Rokeach

1973).

How-

ever,

it

is

important

to

point

out that

advertising

deals

less with heroic acceptance

of tragedy as

a "mimesis



13/22

176

JOURNAL

OF CONSUMER

RESEARCH

FIGURE8

I~~~~~~Cs 00 00 isSs0

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"P, 'P,~~~~~~~~~~~~oe ndcniueaig

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of sacrifice"

(Frye 1973, p. 214) than with prevention

of tragedy.

In premodern plots,

the tragic outcome

was death

or disaster, for violations

of higher laws demanded

revenge.

The laws of the natural or

supernatural world

were perceived as indifferent, if not hostile, and heroes

were punished

for daring to defy them. As more

highly

evolved

secular and sacred

law

developed,

the focal

point shifted from divine power

to moral

power,

and

the endings began to

express ambiguity.

In

modern

tragedies, especially the

realistic ones

dominant since

World

War II (e.g., Arthur Miller's Death of

a Sales-

man

or the

British kitchen-sink dramas),

the

plots

deal with middle- or lower-class

antiheroes who

vi-

olate moral laws. They are doomed by their own

im-

perfections and by those of a corrupt

society-it, too,

is on the

edge of disruption, chaos, and failure.

Even

though the extant

way of life no longer

works, the

central figures do not have sufficient

energy to create

a new one. The following Thanksgiving story illus-

trates the petering out of a family unit (Wallendorf

and

Arnould 1991, p.

25).

Well,

the kids alwaysgot the paper

plates and normal

silverware ecausewe wereslobs. The adultsalways

used

the nice

china and

the silver.I usedto think that

using

the china

was a dreamcome true.

I remember couldn't

wait to get old enough

to sit in the adult room and use

all

of

the good silverware nd dishes.

But that time never

came.

. .

.

My parentsgot divorced

and everyone ust

drifted

apart.

The

fragmented

amilydrifts

apart, or the

narrator's

dream

of

a

symbolic

rite of passage

o adulthood

using

nice

chinaand

good silverware)

s destroyed

by

divorce.

No new

habitsof

celebration

have been formed

to

re-

place the

traditional

arrangement-a

fact

emphasized

bytheuse of "always" wicein the openingsentences-

after

the

nuclear family dispersed.

Unlike

comedy,

where

newlyengineered

amily units

becomeintegrated

into the

socialstructure,

r romance,

wherean

idealized

bow

to tradition

bathes the past

in

nostalgia,

tragedy

presents he

outcome

of situations

n which

family

units

are destroyed

by

societal changes

(e.g., increase

in di-

vorcesand

family

breakups).

The conflict

between

old-

style

families and

new social units is irreconcilable,

nd

in

the

Thanksgiving

ragic

mythos,the

family

often fails

to

survive.

The

preceding

torydocuments

his,

and the

narrator's

inal

comment

reveals

the destruction

of his

dream-he

nevergets

to sit with the

adults.

One aspect

of the failed

dreamdeals with special

ta-

bletopitems for the holiday:the ads contain threeref-

erences

o "good"

silverware

s a special

holiday

reward

for achieving

maturity.

An advertisement

or

LeSueur

peas

uses

the

reward

association

to position

a product

and its

proper

presentation

as

an act of

consumption

that provides

an antitragic

eward

see

Fig. 10).

The

tag

line states,

"Onceagain,

it's time

to bring

out the

finest

silver,"

and a silverserving

spoon

is shown

dipped

nto

a

chinabowl of

peas.

The association

of

fine silverware,

an upscale

brand (LeSueur

vegetables

are

more expen-

sive than

the

Jolly

Green

Giant line), and

Thanksgiving



14/22

STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS

OF

CONSUMPTION

TEXT 177

FIGURE

A

D

blicimi

Rearnehees

......

.. ...

iA m

COUPON

,-;,,9

1~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

. ...

:~~~~~~~~~~~~0

reflects the brand's status as a symbolic reward, or the

group that once again survives the year-a reward that

the consumer narrator

in

the preceding story does not

receive.

His story is but one example

of a tragic Thanksgiving

narrative in which the dominant motif is pain and the

endings are disastrous, even though no deaths

occur.

Often disaster takes the form

of monotonous hard

work

followed by exhaustion as a result of holiday prepara-

tions (Wallendorf and

Arnould 1991, pp. 25, 26, 27).

By the end of our meal, I was completelyexhaustedand

full of thoughts and ideas.

.

. .

I

wish

I

could

be like

my brothers.They don't

have a care

in

the world to-

day.

. .

. Why can't

I

be the one laying

on

the

couch

insteadof in the kitchenand doinga project. . .

.

I

can't

wait for this day to be

over. . . . I am wearingmyself

out.

I was a little frustratedon Thanksgivingbecause

I

had

to

do

everything.

. .

No one was

helping

me.... I

didn'thavemuchtime to socializewith the others since

I wascooking.

After

everyonewas finished

eating, hewomenbegan he

thankless askof puttingup

the

leftovers.

. . . The after-

meal

cleanupwas handledby

all

the

ladies,

but

the

Ber-

nini's

daughter

. .

did

most

of

the work.

In these stories, the protagonists are fatalistic

in their

acceptance of the way of

the world. They do not antic-

ipate that things will be any different in the future,

be-

cause there is no vision of

a reformed or utopian society

about o emerge.Rather,

he mythosdwells

on the plight

of the

heroine

who

expresses

angerat the

injustice of

the power

structure

the protagonists

areall women),

a

responsethat

is more

human than saintly.

We see this

when

we compare

hese storieswith the

narrative bout

the Polishgrandmotherhoveringover the familymeal.

Note thatthe grandmother's

ehavior

s presented

rom

the narrator'spoint

of

view

as part of the

informant's

nostalgicrecollection

of childhood

holidays. n

contrast,

the three preceding

quotations

presentthe food givers'

points of

view-they

are frustrated,exhausted,

worn

down

by

thankless

asks,

and

obsessivelydriven

to

per-

form

labor-intensive housework

(see Strasser

1982).

This shift takes

us inside

the

protagonists,

and the

in-

ternalized

perspective

eveals ragicrather han

roman-

tic

heroines-they complain,

envy

those

with easier

lives,

and betray

a

lack

of patience.

They are caught

n

a

monotonous

round of

frustrating

abor and are

psy-

chically

immobilized

by

a lack

of energy

to

change

the

workarrangementsn the nearfuture o overcome heir

nemesis,

a lack of assistance.

A

tragedy

prevention

advertisement

hat promises

o

relieve

this burdenby

makingholiday

preparations

as-

ier may

also convey other

benefits.Onesuch

advertise-

ment

for Pillsbury

Quick

[Cranberry]

Bread

uses

the

slogan

"Naturallygood

for

the

holidays " see

Fig.

1

1).

Here,

he

appeal

combinesease of preparation"quick")

with nutritional

correctness

("naturally

good").

This

appeal

is also

relevant to

tragedy prevention,

for the

typical

Thanksgiving

meal

"containsat least 4,000

cal-



15/22

178

JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH

FIGURE 10

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1

i M

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ories

and a heavy

helping of

saturated fat"

(Hamlin

1994),a

dangerouslyhigh

intake.

The

advertisement's

promise of

naturalness

implies that the

product is

healthier, and

the

package's ag line

reinforcesthis-

the

bread

is "made with

real

cranberries."

Unifying

product benefits of

healthfulness

and

quick

cooking

doublethe antitragedyappeal.

However,

ragedy annot

alwaysbe

prevented.

Some

stories

feature

a

youngmale

protagonist

who

is scarred

both

physicallyand

psychically

by a

Thanksgiving

x-

perience

(Wallendorfand

Arnould,

unpublished

data,

p. 17).

I

counteredwith the

storyabout

playingtagin

the base-

ment

afterone

Thanksgivingdinner when

Ted,

who

is

the

eldestof

our siblings, was

about seven,

experienced

a similar

njury.Rounding

a

large

old

furnace,

while es-

caping his

pursuer,

Ted

made

a

leap that resulted n

the

spiked

end of a

damper control

piercing

the

top of his

head,

resulting n a

wound that required

stitches and a

massive

headache.

The stitches will leave a scar, and both the pain and

scarring voke ritesof

initiation

hat mark he

transition

from

childhoodto

maturity. In this

and the

following

story, images

of

mutilation(the

spike,

the

knife

cuts)

elicit

shock,

especially in

contrast

with the other

Thanksgivingmythoi,

where the only

endangered pe-

cies are

animals.

When

pain

is

associated more

with

pride

than

with

carelessness,apparent

uccess

signals a

subsequent

fall-as

in

Greek

tragedy, the hero's fatal

flaw is

pride

(Wallendorf

and

Arnould, unpublished

data, p.

39).

Interviewer:Who carvesthe turkey?

Respondent:

My

father

alwaysdid it until he cut

himself.

Now

I

try too, sometimes.

One time my cousin Norm

had an

electric knife. He said that this knife wouldonly

cut flesh and wouldn't

cut your skin, but he was

wrong

and ended

up

with stitches.

This story illustrates the protagonist's (cousin

Norm's)

pride

in

his invulnerability (he is

convinced

that the

knife will

not cut his

own skin, only the flesh

of

a turkey), followed by his downfall (he was

wrong).

It is

interesting that the flaw is presented as a

family

trait,

for

the informant's

father had previously cut him-

self with an electric knife.

The

punishment for defiance

of the laws

of

the

physical universe

is retribution, meted

out to both the father and the

uncle.

Here, despite

re-

peated

indications of

the power of

electric knives, the

heroes persist in

defying external reality and

insist

in-

stead on their own mistaken

version of it.

An

advertisement

that uses a fear approach to enable

the user to

prevent

an

unhappy

outcome is one for

Fleischmann's margarine (see Fig. 12). The headline

states, "Why

use

margarines

that

water

down your bak-

ing?"

The

body copy reads, "Choose Fleischmann's.

The

only leading margarine

with no added water," and

the end

says,

"Most

margarines

are

made with

added

water, which can drown out

the taste and texture of all

you bake.

But

not Fleischmann's. So for

crispier

cookies

and happier

holidays:

Be a

smart cookie.

Bake

with

Fleischmann's." Soggy

cookies are associated

with un-

happy

holidays,

which

suggests that the consumer

has

not

exercised

a

correct

choice. To

remedy this,

the

ad-



16/22

STRUCTURAL

ANALYSIS OF CONSUMPTION

TEXT

179

FIGURE

1

Foi3

T~he

~ohTia

vertisement first

sets up a problem-terrible

cookies

signify unhappy holidays-and

then teaches the

con-

sumer problem-avoidance.

To summarize,

in our culture,

consumption is valued

so positively

as an antidote

to unhappiness that adver-

tising

more often promises

ways to prevent

tragedythan

to endure it. Nonetheless, some Thanksgiving stories

reveal the persistence

of the tragic mythos.

They end

badly because

the protagonist is doomed

by a

fatal flaw

such as defiance

or submissiveness

and must suffer.

The

electric

knife story ends

with retribution repeated-

reenactments

of the same flawed

behavior inevitably

lead to the same

punishments-but

the story points

to-

ward

the final mythos

of irony by revealing

the clash

between two versions

of reality.

However, when

the

outcome is surprise,

the mythic

wheel

moves into

the

domain

of irony.

THE

IRONIC

MYTHOS:

SURPRISE ENDINGS

We come

now to . . . the

attempts

o

give

form to

the shifting

ambiguities

and com-

plexities

of unidealized xistence.

.

.

. As

structure, the

central principle

of

ironic

myth s . . . a

parodyof romance: he ap-

plication of romantic

mythical forms

to a

more realistic context

which fits

them

in

unexpected

ways.

(FRYE 1973, p. 223)

The ironic mythos

is the most complex

because it

conflates

two

forms (irony and satire),

presenting pat-

terns

of experience

in which the complexities

of

the real

world (as distinct from

the ideal

world of

its polar op-

posite,

romance)

reveal a tension

between surface

ap-

pearance

and underlying

truth. This

tension reflects the

seasonal

one, for

winter is

a time that

appears to be

dead but is

in

reality

nurturing the underground

life

destined to be reborn in spring. The derivation of the

term

"irony" (Booth

1965) clarifies

its

meaning:

the

term

was originally

used to refer to

the Greek comic

character called

the

eiron, a "dissembler."

In modern

times,

ironic dissemblance

hides

truth (Abrams

1988;

Stern 1990).

However,

satire is not

identical to

irony (see

Highet

1962;

Sanders

1971), and Frye distinguishes

between

the two as

follows (1973,

pp. 223-224):

The chief distinction

between

ronyand satire

s that sat-

ire

is

militant

irony:

its moral norms

are relatively

clear.

. . .

Irony

is consistent

both with complete

re-

alism

of content

and

with the suppression

of attitude

on

the part of the author.

. .

. Satiredemandsat least a

token

fantasy,

a

content which

the readerrecognizes

as

grotesque,

and at least an implicit

moral

standard, he

latter

being essential

n

a

militantattitude

o experience.

To begin

with satire, the following

plot characteristics

are predominant:

the

progression

presents

actions

that

are grotesque

parodies

of a

fantasy

world

(in

the utopian

sense,

one too perfect

to

be real);

the conflict

sets fan-

tasized

wishes

in

opposition

to clear moral standards;

idealized characters

or

institutions are

militantly

at-

tacked

as ridiculous by

the

author;

and the ending

is



17/22

180

JOURNAL OF

CONSUMER

RESEARCH

FIGURE 12

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18/22

STRUCTURAL

ANALYSIS OF

CONSUMPTION

TEXT

181

upon determinations

that

some things are

socially

valuable

while others are

antisocial-and the

latter are

fair

game for

derision. As

Frye points

out, "To

attack

anything, writer

and

audience

must agree on its

unde-

sirability" (Frye

1973, p. 224).

Making

fun of

others

has

long been

deemed

good sport

(Levin 1987),

and

Frye comments on its popularity: "We like hearing

people

cursed and are

bored with

hearing them

praised"

(Frye 1973,

p. 224).

The

elements of

satiric

plots can be

seen in those

Thanksgiving stories

where the

satirist (in

our text, the

informant)

chooses to

make

someone the

butt of a der-

ogatory

story. Here, the

informant is

taken as the

au-

thor, for

s/he is

responsible for the creative

act of se-

lecting the

bundle of

details

Documents

Consumer Myths Frye's Taxonomy and The