by M.A.
Need: to require sth/sb because they are essential or very important, not just because you would like to have them. (Oxford Advanced Learner’s dictionary)
Before reading this paper, please have a look at all the things you have around you. Ready? Now, how many of them are really “essential”? Of course, the meaning of the word “essential” may be very subjective, but it is no coincidence that the spectrum of what is essential has widened significantly during the last decades. Undoubtedly, we owe this widening to capitalism and its emphasis on consumerism, which makes us consider indispensable certain products that, in fact, are not. At the same time, the concept of “need”, not only as a verb, but also as a noun, has also been affected by it. What is actually needed? What is a need? The answer seems to be simple: what the market makes you believe it is. The problem is that not only adults are victims of this monstruous system of economy called capitalism, but also children. Fortunately, there are still some minds which strive against it, and also against consumerism. But, what is remarkable about that, is that their artistic productions in literature, music, and the like try to pass on children a message that utterly opposes it. This is the case of the children’s story “Old hat, new hat” by Stan and Jan Berenstain.
Children are perfect targets of consumerism. They are constantly bombarded with TV ads, which encouarge them to ask their parents to buy new things for them all the time. “Old hat, new hat” perfectly portrays the kind of bombardment customers suffer at shops. The story is set at a hat’s shop, where the main character of the story, a little bear, is assisted by a shop assistant, who offers him a huge variety of hats to try on. It does not matter whether the little bear likes the hats or not; what the shop assistant wants him to do is buy. In fact, pictures play an important role in the story. They show that as the customer enters the shop, the shop assistant is well disposed to him. But problems arise when the customer does not make a choice easily. At that moment, the shop assistant’s attitude towards him changes completely. He gets angry and forces him to choose one hat. This is one of the reasons why we may consider this story a useful tool to raise awareness in children of the pressures that market exerts on people, and encourage them to reject capitalist bombardment.
On the other hand, the end of the story, in which the little mouse realises that the best choice was his own old hat, conveys an important message: needs in capitalist world are created. Eventually, the little mouse grasps that he does not really need a new hat, and that is the moment in which he values his own. This is another instance of the anti-consumerist message that the tale conveys.
Eric Hoffer, a well-known American social writer, once said that people can never get enough of what they don’t need to make them happy. This phrase must sound familiar to all of us, since it portrays the feelings that are abundant in consumerist minds. What we must endeavour to do is to discourage the development of these feelings from children. And I am sure that stories such as “Old hat, new hat” can really help. In fact, I believe that they are the epitome of what children born in the capitalist era urgently need.
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