Semiotic Analysis: The Wonderful World of Wal-Mart!

How are Americans perceived?  Large and in charge, demanding, impatient, diverse, and loud are just a few suggestions.  And what do people think of when they think of American culture?  Well, there are many answers, but I personally think of Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart embodies basically every American stereotype -- the prices are low, the stores are conveniently located, and the people are, well, diverse.  It is truly a one-stop-shop which plays into our country's need for instant gratification; there is nothing that you can not find at Wal-Mart.  The stores are also easily navigated and well organized to help make one's shopping trip that much quicker.  The people who shop at Wal-Mart range from the lower class to even the wealthy, from backwoods Americans to new citizens; everyone shops here.  Because there are so many different types of people that shop at Wal-Mart, the stores are usually labeled in multiple languages, mainly English and Spanish.

One big characteristic of Wal-Mart though is their prices.  Their prices are extremely low compared to a lot of stores because of their outsourcing; they send a lot of jobs over to China.  This is very American because Americans today seem to think that they are too good for these factory jobs, they deserve more money than what those jobs will pay.  Since Americans turn their noses up at jobs, many are finding themselves out of work and out of money, and Wal-Mart is the only place that they can shop because of the low prices.

It is easy to say that Wal-Mart not only embodies the American persona of impatience, diversity, and connivence, but it is also consuming the public.  It is no secret that the gap between rich and poor is growing exponentially in this country, and Wal-Mart is becoming a monopoly because of it.  So many Americans already rely on these stores to get their basic needs, and as Americans continue to shop there, the jobs in China will keep growing and Americans will keep losing jobs (that they would turn down anyway), which would cause even more people who will depend on Wal-Mart's low prices -- a vicious cycle has been created.

It seems as if our economy is failing just so we can save a few dollars....we're in a sticky spot America.

A Global World

As I looked over the words from President Obama's inaugural address, I noticed the usual patriotic words such as "nation", "America", and "spirit", but there was also one other word that had caught my eye -- world.  I started thinking about how countries interact with each other on a daily basis now; communication is so easy!  Naturally as I scrolled through the past presidents, I realized that the word "world" was dying out and being replaced with words like "union" and "country".

When our country first was established, our founding fathers had to try to do something that was never done before -- unite a bunch of strong states that formed a weak confederacy.  In the early stages of our history, the politicians were not primarily concerned with helping foreign nations, they were concerned with the development of their own.  It is no surprise that I saw so many words like "union" and "constitution" from our early presidents.

I have never given it much thought until now, but government has turned into not only sovereignty over a nation's land, but into a global affair.  The world isn't such a big place anymore.  Back in the day, the handwritten letters or messages to other countries took weeks and even months to arrive.  Now with a few clicks of a button, government officials from America can be video chatting with government officials from China; this is really quite remarkable!

Since nations are so connected now, we all have to be conscious of what we are saying or doing, making sure not to offend another country.  A country's business is also less private; news spreads fast and when any scandal or war springs up, everyone will soon know about it, either providing aid or criticism.

A global world in my opinion is not a bad thing, it helps make everyone more cultured and worldly.  The global market also is a huge benefit from the development of this -- needed products and resources can be shipped to any part of the world!  To conclude, it is not surprising that our country's focus has shifted from itself to the world.  The United States have become united and stable, and with the help of technology, we can now focus on our global interactions, and our presidential speeches are starting to reflect this ideal.

Golf and Writing: How Do They Relate?

It is no surprise by now that I love to golf; anyone who knows me will agree to that.  Golf is not a challenging game physically, but it is mentally.  It takes a lot of practice and persistence to even be able to hack yourself around the golf course, while praying to God that you don't take a ten on the hole.  But once you become good at golf, it's a lot of fun, and as you look back on all of the hardships that you had faced to get there, you realize that it was all worth it and that you had learned valuable life lessons along the way.


Obviously it is a little hard to golf up here in Wisconsin in the wintertime due to the snow and the ice.  There are heated driving ranges which golfers can use, but they are just not the same as hitting off grass.  Often I find myself struggling in the spring to find my swing; I'm out of practice, and I have lost the rhythm and tempo of how I usually swing a golf club.  If you're not a golfer, it is hard to identify with that, but to a golfer, losing your swing is like losing your left arm -- you'd give anything to get it back.  As the spring turns into summer, my swing usually comes back, and I am able to shoot my usual scores which makes the game a lot more fun again.  I can only find my swing through practice and persistence though.


I compare this to writing.  When I was little, I LOVED to write -- I even wrote a twenty-four chapter "novel" when I was ten.  After I had finished that massive amount of writing, I was so pleased with myself and so happy with how it turned out.  As I read through it now, I find grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, fragments and run-on sentences, but I realize that I would not be able to write as well as I can today if I had never made those mistakes in my adolescence.  Writing takes practice, just like golf.


I still love to write now, but now I find that I only write for school, I never write for fun.  Right now I'm out of practice for writing poetry and short stories, all I know how to write is reports and essays.  I feel like if I can get a chance to  write and compose creatively again like I used to, I would enjoy writing a lot more than I do.  I feel like if I just practice and keep going, I will find the creative voice that I had as a child.