An Orange Juice Label as a Microcosm of Society Essay -- Exploratory

An Orange Juice Label as a Microcosm of SocietyOne facet of Herbert von Hundsteins theory of universality is that all(a) components of culture, from obvious propaganda campaigns to pen notes exchanged on refrigerator doors, are meaningful and representative of society as a whole. Von Hundstein writes in Kultur ist Alle Alle ist Kultur, The most mundane may also be the most significant, for is our culture any less forgotten in the private conversations of two lovers? Culture does not exist in a vacuum it permeates all like oxygen, and for that reason anything in existence is a product of its culture. (34)Therefore, a parking ticket, office memo, and chromatic juice packaging are all representations of culture. It is the orange tree juice label that concerns us here, and its promotion of ambiguity, assumptions of the audiences supineness, and reliance on other texts. The word minute has multiple meanings, as does maid, and thus minute maid is immeasurably problematic. Are we to assu me that the maid, an unmarried girl or woman, is only a maid for a minute? After those sixty seconds, is her virginity gone? If this is the intended reading, world the primary denotations for both words, then should this company really be selling orange juice and not sex toys? Examining the phrase minute maid from a grammatical viewpoint, we could easily extrapolate that minute here serves as an adjective, modifying maid, and thus means a very small maid. Perhaps virgin dwarfs create orange juice. The company presumes to convey a quickness created through the additional services of an assistant, a maid making a laborious process go by in a minute however, that reading is only one of many possible. During the 2000 preside... ... cause orange juice labels to be less ambiguous, assumptive, and intertextual in the future. Let us not oversimplify and assume that one orange juice label does not matter, that the simple commands shake well before enjoying simply fall on blind ears and dea f ears. As von Hundstein states, this orange juice label contains a microcosm of society within its directives lie the problems and successes of society. The orange juice label thus serves as a litmus test of American culture in general, and we can determine that American culture requires a fairly informed populace use to interpreting assumptions and intertextuality to avoid problematic ambiguity. Works CitedMinute Maid. Orange Juice Label. Packaging on product purchased 27 Apr. 2001.Von Hundstein, Herbert. Kulture ist Alle Alle ist Kulture. Trans. Gary Boyle. Dresden U of Dresden P, 1994.