Corporate Cancer

“Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the Cancer Cell.” In one of my previous papers, I took this quote and ran with it as being entirely incorrect. I did, however, make one small exception in the case of Corporate America and Capitalism. Chris Ware constantly alludes to how Corporate America is, for lack of a better phrase, taking over America. The postcards Ware placed at the middle of the book show that a central theme to his book is Corporate control and monopoly. It seems like every other page has a McDonalds, or some other generic chain shop such as “Shopper’s Square”. Although Ware’s overall agenda may be about forcing the reader to be able to acknowledge mediocrity, he also uses Jimmy Corrigan to show that America, or even the entire world depending on how you choose to interpret it, is losing touch with itself, and is allowing corporations to control every facet of their everyday lives. Ware is sensing a lack of connection between people and their societies, and uses a more or less generic American town to depict the incredible reach of Corporate America, and it’s “cancer-cell like” growth.

Although it doesn’t come until much later in the book, a good place to start is the scene where Jimmy is at the train station, and is walking up the stairs. Right before the scene occurs where Jimmy looks up at the building, possibly contemplating suicide, there is a frame of an Amtrak train with a disgusting piece of garbage and puddle outside of it on the platform. Many readers would overlook this, as it is nothing more than a train, but Chris Ware did not put that there arbitrarily. The train is an Amtrak train, which basically has somewhat of a monopoly over interstate train transportation in the United States. Chris Ware puts the disgusting stain outside the train to show how little respect Americans have and how little care they have. They are willing to let a company like Amtrak have a monopoly, as long as it gets them where they’re going, and as long as they don’t have to care. Also, more symbolically, the stain could represent the stain that Amtrak has put on transportation by monopolizing the entire industry. Right after the frame with the train, there is the aforementioned scene where Jimmy looks up at the skyscrapers. This is one of the couple times within the book that Ware chooses a sort of panoramic landscape view, as opposed to one that is focused specifically on Jimmy.

Occasionally throughout the book, Ware uses great images to depict a landscape, such as the snow earlier in the book, or at the Grand Exposition about two thirds of the way through. After the exposition scene ends, and they return to “reality”, there is another similar set of frames where the McDonalds’ arches are shown as a silhouette in the background of Pam’s Wagon Wheel. Much like as was said before, Ware is placing these images to show that Corporate America’s growth sees no limitations, and that basically everywhere in America, you’re bound to see those golden arches somewhere in your peripheral vision, if not directly in front of you. In this frame, McDonalds is a cancer cell because it looms greatly over the city, and trumps basically everything else in site. A privately owned place like Pam’s Wagon Wheel couldn’t stand a chance against something like McDonalds. Even despite the fact that the picture is of Pam’s Wagon Wheel, the golden arches which are presumably very far off in the distance, are still higher and more noticeable than the Wagon Wheel’s sign on its roof. There are several other scenes in which the golden arches, or some other generic corporate chain is implemented in the forefront of Ware’s book.

Another scene worth noting is the scene where Jimmy meets his grandfather for the first time while he’s at the restaurant with his father. They are at Pam’s Wagon Wheel, so again, we have the depiction of the golden arches in the background. However, there is also the “Shopper’s Square” in the background. It’s basically nothing more than a giant, plain building with only a poorly created sign over its door. Again, Chris Ware is attempting to show people’s lack of care for beauty and worthiness anymore. Here we have this huge building, where presumably tons of people shop everyday, and there is absolutely nothing attractive about it whatsoever. Again, it goes back to the idea that people know that as long as they can get what they want without need for excess care, that they are willing to let these unimpressive companies to control their lives.

The final, and certainly most important example of Corporate takeover in Jimmy Corrigan comes at the postcards in the middle. Here, Chris Ware explicitly attacks corporate takeover, and also explicitly states how people have no respect for beauty anymore. The first thing that becomes immediately noticeable while looking at the pictures on the front of the cards is that almost all of them are completely devoid of cars or people. All of the seemingly privately owned pleasances are empty. The only card that has any people is the “Buyalot” shopping center right in the middle of the page. It should go without saying, but again, it must be brought up that it shows how people don’t care about the other “real” places, where “real” people work hard for their living. They care only about simplicity, so they go to the shopping center where they can get everything they need in one compact area. Possibly the most important card on this page, however, is the one that depicts a Dairy Queen. The caption on the back reads “Note: rock is behind building, out of photo”. Here we have what amounts basically to a picture of a Dairy Queen, when the actual purpose of the picture was supposed to depict some great rock of great historical significance to the town. Ware couldn’t possibly be making his point more clear here. People have simply lost respect for beauty, and have allowed corporate America to control their lives, and strip them of the small amounts of beauty that still remained in the world.

Corporate America is disgusting. With gas prices as high as they were a few months ago, and to even try and understand why every single house built in the past 10 years looks exactly the same seriously makes me sick to my stomach. It literally has become a cancer cell, feeding upon the weakness of people to stand up for anything. Private business owners are constantly being shoved out of their sole income because Corporate America can’t stand the idea that they aren’t the only company to sell a certain product, or perform a certain task. Especially now, with the economy as bad as it is, private business owners can’t even imagining challenging Corporate America because they already control all of the nation’s revenue. Chris Ware created Jimmy Corrigan to show how we have allowed them to feed upon us like a parasite, and that it has reached a point where it’s impossible to have anything beautiful anymore because Corporate America expands without bounds. Sooner or later, nothing will stand; there will be nothing of significance anymore. We will simply be just another page in the book of Corporate America.