Essay #4

Nile Finney
Pop Culture- 4th essay
Soc 3380
Dr. Mayeda
More than a Mall
If you were looking for an analogy for the modern mall you would have to go back to the walled cities of Italy and France. Like San Gimingnano or Les Baux de Provence, the mall offers the ancient trifecta of enclosure, protection, and control. The analogy is not with a well-policed downtown but with a small, thoroughly fascist medieval city state (James B. Twitchell). People say that the mall is just a place for shoppers. I am here to tell you that I think the total opposite. For this 4th essay we are suppose to talk about and analyze today’s pop culture such as: television, movies, fashion, and advertisements. I feel like the mall is filled with these key components and more. A mall is part of the biggest Americanized popular cultural group I think that exists. People from all age groups for all different reasons attend malls all over the country.
The mall is more than just a mall. It is a place where people meet up like a town square. Malls have been around since 1956 when Eisenhower was in power. Malls today are the same but still different in some areas. In each mall that I have been too I have seen groups of different people and different ages gathered together like they had a meeting planed. Take Oahu malls for example; I used to go to the Kahala mall quite a bit and I always would see a smorgasbord of different races of all elderly people. I walked into the center of the mall one day and just sat there to observe my surroundings and what I saw backed up my decision that a mall is more than just a mall. All the elderly people where doing different things. Some of them had exercise clothes on walking back and forth through the mall. Other senior citizens where sitting down at these tables playing board games like checkers and chess. Some of them where there to see a concert on this stage that the mall provides and always has set up. But the majority of the elderly people there looked like they came to the mall simply just to meet up with their friends and have a cup of coffee. Seeing these activities that where going on in the mall conveyed my decision that the mall is more than a shopping center. I saw almost the same thing at the Windward Mall in Aiea when I went. Although I saw the same things happening when I observed these malls; it was all around the same time of the day. The elderly people seemed to only gather and meet up with each other during the early hours of the day.
I said earlier that some malls are the same but different. I had visited Maui and while I was over there I went the mall to do some browsing. When I was inside to my surprise I saw that the majority of the people there were young. I was expecting to see the same thing I observed at the Oahu mall. All these kids were there who looked like they were having a blast. The age group ranged from middle school kids to high school. There were two levels of the mall and in which both levels were filled with kids. It seemed like the mall was an ant farm and all of these adolescents were the crazy ants. Most of them didn’t have shopping bags in their hands so I assumed that they were at the mall to meet up and socialize. I overheard these three girls talking about what boys they thought were attractive and what they had planned for that night. This to me seemed like this was a prime example of a communal gathering. These girls weren’t even shopping; yet still there at the mall talking about their plans.
If someone still doesn’t believe that the mall is more than a mall; than I would tell them to conduct the mall observation so they could see it for themselves. I feel the mall is where people go to find out what new cloths are out, to go and watch movies, and more. I feel that malls will continue to be at the top of the pop culture world and will stay at the top. But with malls being the way they are today it makes me wonder! If malls today have chapels, amusement parks, and hotels; what do you think is going to be in store for malls ten years from now? Maybe you won’t even have to go to the mall. With a push of a button you will be able to just have your clothes sent to you instantly through a mail shoot. Time can only tell.