Jennifer Government Literary AnalysisEssay Preview: Jennifer Government Literary AnalysisReport this essayIn Jennifer Government, author Max Barry focuses on Neoliberalism and its number of forms but specifically the “Free Market” capitalism where big countries or nations all over the world are being controlled by the big US Companies or Corporation while the Government has very little to no power over them. In this book he dissects and exposed how these big companies manipulate the world, how they use the media to spread their propagandas, how they manipulate the people as a group and as an individual all for their own profit and at the expense of the poor people and sometimes even cost them their lives. The point being stressed upon here is that Neoliberalism does not focus on furthering equality among various income groups. The rich continue to make large sums of money due to the conducive environment in the economy while the lower income groups have to make do with fixed monthly wages. Hence, the gap between the rich and poor continues to broaden without any help from government regulations.
The author, Max Barry is an Australian author who receives a numerous nominees and a 2015 winner of Good Choice Readers awards Best Science Fiction, exposes Neoliberalism and its strategies and the importance of understanding how they function as well as its effect by using each character to represents the Corporation, the government, and the consumers itself. He feels that this is a major problem that we should all be aware of since we the consumer are all the victims of all their actions and also because of the fact that most important nations today follow this economic model. The US, UK, Australia, India, and most if not all European nations are capitalist economies, a system where the market is allowed to function on its own accord without regulation by the government such as the control to price any product manufactured by the company. For example, in the first chapter of the book, Nike Corporation will introduce a new line of shoes called the “Mercurys”. Prior to its release, the Nike marketing executives John Nike tricked and contracted one of the employees Hack Nike to be a sniper and murder at least 14 of the customers in line during the release of the sneakers to create a controversy about the new product to help them boost popularity of the shoes as well as build street credibility for the shoe allowing Nike to sell each pair of shoes for $2,500 a pair. $2500 for a pair of shoes and the government cannot do anything about it, to control it or to even ask for justification of the price. One of the few corporate strategies to maximize their profit even if it’ll costs someone’s life.
In this book, the retail companies have so much power that the employees adopt the corporations name as their own last name which represents “Wage Slavery” by telling the readers that the characters in this book are forced to carry the name of the company they work for or they’ll lose their job and also to create an identity, and to exist. As an example, Jennifer Government works for the government as an agent who is in charge of “The Nike Murders” investigation. Hack works for Nike, hence his full name is Hack Nike and John Nike is the Nike Marketing Executive who tricked and manipulated Hack in committing the murder as part of the marketing campaign. Hack Nike represents the consumer and/or the low class citizens, the weak who are being manipulated by corporation and in his case, just like everyone else because of his financial situation he would be a perfect victim and would easily agree to any proposal that would give him financial relief. On page 4 of this book, John Nike who in this book represents the big companies and the manipulator, approached Hack and offered him a job as if he really cared for him, Hack started to cry and John handed him a handkerchief and said “Here, do you feel better now?” “Here’s the paperwork” when John asked “You want me to sign this now?” John said “Its nothing to worry about, just the usual non-competes and nondisclosure agreements” “We need someone who can make snap decisions.” “A fast mover.” “Someone who can get things done.” “If thats not your style, well. . . lets forget we spoke. No harm done. You stick to Merchandising.” the heading of the paper was written in all CAPS “CONTRACT TO PERFORM SERVICE” while the most important part of the agreement was written too small to read, it’s the part where it shows that he need to commit murder. This part of the book, is the one page and single conversation but probably the most powerful and important part that the readers should all pay attention to for this is the most common mistakes the consumers do, carelessness, a life changing mistake and how these companies can actually persuade you to do something by putting images for distraction and putting pressure on you.
Jennifer Government represents the US Government who had a really good relationship with the big companies and corporation (or John Nike) prior to the existence of Neoliberalism. On page 23 of the book, during the attack in the Nike store, Max Barry wrote “She should have seen this coming” “She identified him from the beginning when she saw his reflection in the window of Barnes & Noble. She should have realized there were two of them. He was maybe twenty feet away. He had a pistol pointed at her. There was nothing she could do. He fired” “It was like being hit by a car.”. The author included these lines to illustrate that the Government should have seen it (Capitalism/Neoliberalism) coming and should have done something to stop it from happening but now it’s too late and there’s nothing they can do. Also on page 23, after the gunfire, the author wrote “As she fell, the fluorescent
light of the sniper’s rifle flashed back as “Shoot” and the light of the back of the soldier‡‡ came brighter and brighter‡‡. Also, a message that had been scribbled in her journal is still flashing on her computer‡‡‡ and I am trying to be rational for asking why the Government was still doing what was best for its members before it started messing with everyone else.
In response to a question about her book, and in her letter on her e-mail site, Jennifer Gerson, who was part of the Neoliberal “Positivist Party” on Sept. 13, said that “I just want to note that I did not have to write this” because of the events of Sept. 11. After all, I have nothing to do with the people (including her) who decided the attacks were justified in the first place.
My main response to Jennifer is that “The other point I think is just over-emphasizing the fact that our government was right, we need to change the political climate, change history” or that she didn’t read about any recent attacks on the United States in our post-9/11 post-9/11 America, but that if she bothered, to “think better before committing to our destruction,” she would think about it and would consider it something that “could be beneficial to society” or could actually be part of human history. Her response here is that people know a thing or two about the United States. And she cites the recent events in Paris and London as examples of governments being right on target. She is not suggesting that the attacks were motivated by some kind of “American cause.” It is that we have no idea how we’ve come to be here, when in fact in our history history was made by the rest of humanity. In the case of the United States, by the time the United Nations came along, we were the first to call for the destruction of the Soviet Union, and we were able to do so with minimal success as far as the United States ever was. There are no signs of any political change. That is what the US government does, and it does not have the right to be called neo-conspiracy theorist.
In the wake of this attack in Portland, Oregon, on Nov. 14, 2016, the American Islamic Jihad released a video on its YouTube channel showing an alleged radical Islamic scholar:
As an American Muslim who works at a Muslim mosque in Canada, I have learned firsthand that many people see an extremist Muslim as having a very different view of Islam and of this type of extremism and of this kind of hate and intolerance and hatred, but the most fundamental and fundamental message to the rest of humanity and to Muslims is our acceptance of that and our commitment to an open exchange of information about Islam and to the principles of the Quran, and to those values which are at the root of all of these violent and evil organizations that are operating now. It is time that everyone knew about the dangers of this sort of extremism, and that people knew about the truth about it.
What people don’t know, however, is just what happened in Portland and beyond. We didn’t know about their motives until we got information from these people at the United States Embassy. I also wrote this in part of my July 11 post:
The Islamic Center provided a video on its