The Commerce of A Christmas Story
The Commerce of A Christmas Story by Roxanne McDonald
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The Fisher Red Ryder 200-shot Action Carbine Air Rifle [bb gun] aside, the commercialism is wryly displayed, discussed, and used as a harbinger of disappointment in A Christmas Story, reminding us that even in the forties, commerce was a cruel king. |
The adult narrator of A Christmas Story may be the informed one informing us of a more mature disappointment in commercialism at Christmas, but one underlying theme of the film does point to the pain of
being a powerless kid in a world gone money-mad. Here are some such moments, I suggest:
The tree lot salesman: “This is a TREE.” “This aint a tree; THIS is a TREE. Then, “I’ll knock off two bucks cause I can see you’re a man who knows his trees.” Then, when Mother asks if it is one where all the needles fall off, he says “No, that’s them Balsams.”
The irony of the elves yelling at the kids waiting for Santa and Santa being jolly out loud but muttering to “get [the kid] off [his] lap,” muttering that he isn’t staying one minute past closing, and doing such hostile kid-unfriendly things as shoving Ralphy down the slide with the toe of his boot on Ralphy’s forehead
And, of course, the most obvious anticipation of using kids to sell product is in the cipher Ralphy cracks after waiting weeks for his special decoder ring (which was advertised on a radio program sponsored by Ovaltine)—“BE SURE TO DRINK MORE OVALTINE”
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