In Arlie Russell Hochschild's From The Frying Pan Into The Fire

At one point in a person’s life, they may partake in the step of creating their own family through parenthood. Families, in themselves, mimic their own form of community, typically when the elders, or parents, disperse ideas and beliefs onto children, resulting in a chain of common-thinking. In Arlie Russell Hochschild’s “From the Frying Pan into the Fire,” she discusses capitalism and how people struggle to find a balance between family and work. She shows how great of an impact capitalism actually has on humans. Hochschild promotes the concept that people often separate the idea of spending time doing something with the impression of believing in doing that same thing, creating a difference in how people perceive accomplishing tasks. She …show more content…
A meme is, as Blackmore describes it, “[w]hen you imitate someone else, something is passed on. This ‘something’ can then be passed on again, and again, and so take on a life of its own. We might call this thing an idea, an instruction, a behavior, a piece of information … but if we are going to study it we shall need to give it a name. Fortunately, there is a name. It is the ‘meme’” (34). When capitalism is considered a meme, ideal and practice are separated because people are more focused in making more money and the ideal of perfect family starts to vanish. They want to make more money, but also have an ideal family, which is impossible to do because to have an ideal family, they would have to spend so much time together. Capitalism is able to spread because it is a meme and people see capitalism as a source of making them money, which is helpful. Memes are spread not only by the word of mouth, but also through technology. Hochschild gives an example of how the meme of capitalism is able to spread through the use of technology: “The ad continues with a short story: ‘Nicky is a very picky eater. With Instant Quaker Oatmeal, I can give him a terrific hot breakfast in just 90 seconds. And I don’t have to spend any time coaxing him to eat it’” (184). The mother is always in a rush and she does not have time in the mornings to make her son hot breakfast so the solution is this …show more content…
It uses memes to turn itself into something that reflects religion. Capitalistic memes are already embedded in every person that hurries to work because they do not want to be late. They want to get there on time and start working hard because they need that money to feed their families. This happens to every person because it is a meme of capitalism and if many people are doing, then they think they have to do what other people are doing. Capitalistic memes are already there, and they are seen when people are doing things that involve money such as jobs related issues. Hochschild explains the role of capitalism in people’s lives: “We don’t link what we think with what we do. Or as one Amerco employee put it, using company language, ‘I don’t walk the talk at home.’ This encapsulation of our family ideal allows us to accommodate to what is both a pragmatic necessity and a competing source of meaning – the religion of capitalism. I say pragmatic necessity, because most Americans, men and women alike, have to work for food and rent” (186). Hochschild shows that humans value the ideal family, but it is not possible for them to reach that point because they have to work for food and to pay for the place they live in. Memes are used to create new ideas and allows them to spread more rapidly from person to person. Capitalism is used as a meme to mirror