Post #6: Neo-Marxist Perspective

The Amazing World of Gumball is a children’s cartoon on Cartoon Network where Gumball Waterson, Waterson family, and friends get into weird situations. The show is episodic and only fifthteen minutes long. Each episode normally parodies some form of the moral of the story that kids would normally learn. Neo-Marxist perspective allows us to be able to exam texts and uncover the underlying arguments that either reinforce or challenge ideology of people. Using the episode, “The Bumpkin” I will show the more desirable convenient life style for normal people compare to the undesirable life style of a bumpkin

Neo-Marxist Perspective

Neo-Marxist Perspective examines how “material conditions and economic practices shape the dominate ideology about who ought to be and ought not to be empowered” by looking at the model ,who portrayed as normal and desirable, and the anti-model, who portrayed as abnormal and undesirable. This will help determine what the hegemonic argument in the story. Hegemonic is the privileging of a dominant group’s ideology over that of other groups.

The Bumpkin

In the episode, “The Bumpkin” Gumball gets tired of conforming to modern society and everything that comes with it and ask his classmate Idaho Potato, who a country bumpkin that doesn’t know anything about subara living, to show him a simpler lifestyle. Inside the Waterson’s home it shows them eating fast food and entering themselves with electronics. As soon as Idaho start showing them what he does instead of this like playing outside and eating healthier foods with the joke of because he a potato he eats soil instead of actually food, but is actually talking about how we rather eat something that taste good then something that is better for you. At the end of the day the family decide that Idaho lifestyle is better and goes to bed. Gumball gives up and spends all night doing the things he rejects and show Idaho what a more modern lifestyle is all about. This sends Idaho into a shock because his body could handle the modern lifestyle. At end of the episode where Idaho is revived and ask if the family would like to live with his family. The Waterson family quickly leaves and goes to a fast food restaurant.

Breakdown

The Waterson family is the model for the episode. Their normal and more desirable lifestyle of modern conveniences like fast food and election entertainment at most of the viewers are probably accustomed to. Even though throughout the episode they slowly come to like the simple life style it shows at the end that they rather have the easier life. Gumball himself shows this the best with him breaking under the pressure of Idaho’s lifestyle by staying up all night enjoying TV and junk food. Idaho is the anti-model for the episode. His simpler lifestyle of doing everything outside, eating what you grow, and doesn’t know what technology is. Yes, thought the episode is made for jokes, but also reinforce to the viewer that what they have is better than what Idaho has.

Conclusion

In the episode, “The Bumpkin” shows the modern-day lifestyle of conveniences is taken for granted, but non-the-less is a normal and desirable. It also shows that with this modern-day lifestyle that it brings happiness and easy to the Waterson family and viewer. Neo-Marxist perspective allows us to be able to look at The Amazing World of Gumball and be able to break it down to figure what ideology is being reinforce.