George Packer must have made many observations of the people everywhere he went. He wanted to see how people reacted to the same situation, or maybe the same SHIRT but different situations.
In america he had to observe how people drop off their clothes, where it ends up, how the store takes cares of the clothes, how the store managers react to the amount of clothes,how the clothes end up to the poor countries,how the people react in those countries,and how much they might have had to pay for them. I think Packer wanted to see how just one small thing to us which is clothes affects others around the world. How we don't even think of the stories of all the other people in this world that don't have the things we have.I think his point is "we don't know how far our giving really goes until we give just a little thing to us."
The observations he made support his point by the specific things he looked at. He wanted to see both sides of the story. How people in the U.S think of excess clothes and in Africa are so desperate for clothes they strive extra hard to get clothes for cheap.He said towards the end when someone wanted to buy the coat for $1.75 but didnt have $4.70 and Packer thought back to Virginia where the ladies working at the store were so DESPERATE to GET RID of the clothes. In both situations people are desperate, with the coat- the guy selling was DESPERATE for MONEY, the person buying was DESPERATE for CLOTHES, and lastly the ladies in Virginia were DESPERATE to move on and get money. In the very end Packer asks Yusuf why specifically he wanted Susie Bayers shirt, and it was because again he was DESPERATE for a shirt he only had one.
No comments:
Post a Comment