The SImpsons.

College Writing 100

YOU ARE WHAT YOU WATCH

For over ten years the animated suburban satire The Simpson's has captivated American families of all races, ages, and ethnicity. Viewers are attracted to The Simpson's because the show represents an exaggerated form of themselves and their own reality. The Simpson's half hour television sitcom does not have a great deal of time to develop characters so must rely on commonly understood attitudes about types of people and their motivations. (Common Culture, 2nd Edition, Berger, page 243) Homer Jay Simpson is the patriarch of the Simpson household, a thirty-eight year old safety inspector at Springfield's local nuclear power plant. Homer's wife Marge is a thirty-four year old homemaker. Together they have three children. Bartholomew Jo-Jo "Bart", their eldest child, is an incredibly mischievous fourth grader. Lisa Marie is the overlooked middle child, an eight-year-old second grader who excels in both academics and music.

Clockwise from top left: Marge, Homer, Bart, Santa...

English: The Simpsons star in Hollywood Walk of Fa...

Marge Simpson

One year old Margaret, "Maggie" Simpson is the silent youngest child who is addicted to per pacifier.

Marge is a devoted wife and mother who controls the family from behind the scenes. She uses her female intuition when reacting to whatever incidences occurred that day. Marge rarely speaks her mind openly. She uses less obvious means of persuasion. In an episode where a teacher recommends Bart take a drug for Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) Homer attempts to hide the pills in Bart's food. Marge, on the other hand, tells her son he does not have to take the medication but if he did it would make her very proud. Bart folds to the request of his mother rather than the threats or trickery attempts of his father. Marge represents a woman who is intelligent but has put aside any type of personal or career fulfillment to raise her...