Shoplifting From American Apparel

 Shoplifting from American Apparel written by Tao Lin focuses on a American teenager named Sam. The theme of the book is American culture. The setting of the book takes place in NYC, Florida, or a G-Mail chat room. Sam is described as a teenager who really does not care about life. He spends most of his time chatting with friends,gambling, travelling, going out to parties, or writing, it seems like Sam is living a meaningless life and goes with whatever is thrown at him, Sam can be a representation of other American Teenagers who have no goals to follow or any aspirations in life. Surprisingly at the end of the book, it is reveled to the readers that Sam wanted to become a Marine Biologist. I am guessing that he does not care about his life because it is not the life that he desired to have. Tao Lin also focuses on how this young teenager is in poverty and hopes to get out of it one day.(6-7) From this I am concluding that Tao is trying to bring attention to those who have a college degree, but can not find a suitable job and therefore are pushed to work in low paying jobs in order not to live below the poverty line.

While reading the book, I have notice that it is closely related to the writings of Warhol and Muhammed because all three deals with American culture and how the obsessions of brands can affect peoples lives. Postmodernism is also a common theme throughout all three writing. Postmodernism can be defined as when people feel like they can not express themselves anymore. This puts a mirror on society,reflecting the images and symbols used by popualar culture. Tao Lin talks about brands and materialized items that many American people desire to have such as American Apparel, which is a store that is popular among American Teens, expensive items, such as the headphones that Sam stoled from the NYU store, laptops, phones etc. Due to the fact that Sam has stolen twice, I believe that Lin is trying to focus on the fact that we Americans are obsessed with materialized items, we find any means even stealing in order to get those items. On page 59, when Sam put into his cell for stealing, those inside the cell already knew what he was in for because stealing is a common trend among American teens.