Manipulation and Profits: The Corporate World in “Mister Squishy”

Abstract

This thesis will discuss the American corporate world and how it is presented within David Foster Wallace’s “Mister Squishy”. This research contributes to the discussion about the practices of American corporations while analyzed through a literary lens. Wallace’s work has been connected to the corporate world before from business and management perspectives. Throughout the thesis, the depiction of American companies within “Mister Squishy” will be discussed. By means of a close reading of the story, marketing practices and manipulation will be analyzed, as well as society versus the individual, and invasion of privacy and the American dream focalized through Terry Schmidt, one of the main characters. This will result in the conclusion that the story contains a certain critique of the practices within companies such as Mister Squishy and Reesemeyer Shannon Belt, that both resemble the reality of the corporate environment, and how consumers and employees are used by corporations in order to gain profit. Therefore, American corporations are depicted negatively within “Mister Squishy”.