The Tyranny Of Things Analysis

The issue over American consumerism had been hotly contested for decades in the past. As it had been a serious social issue in the past, it still continues to have negative impacts on the society nowadays too. In the essay, “The Tyranny of Things,” E.W. Morris effectively portrays various negative consequences of human consumerism to free the audience from their selfish needs of ownership. During this process, Morris provides real-life examples and personal anecdote while implementing negative diction to support her claim.

At the beginning of her essay, Morris introduces the idea of consumerism by providing real-life examples of how objective things are present all around people and their homes. She states that “ we fill our rooms, our walls, our tables, our desks, with things, things, things.” She uses these colloquial examples to illustrate how things populate our lives and our space. Also, the repetition of the word, “things,” emphasizes the the presence of all other physical objects that people already own. Thus, Morris renders the audience weary of all their objective surroundings, making them realize how much they are already consumed by things.

In addition to the use of colloquial examples, Morris implements negative diction to bolster her

She builds a scenario in which she experiences a day without the “demand to care,” “claim to attention,” “cumbers to consciousness,” and passion to consume. She invokes a sense of peace and freedom from her dreamlike experience. Then, Morris continues that once people rid themselves of the material obstructions, they will be able to see the environment more clearly including the “fields,” “marshes,” “shores and the sea.” Through the use of this anecdote, Morris effectively illustrates the positive experiences of abandoning the desire for consumerism, persuading the audience to abandon their materialistic obsessions