Defamiliarization

They give these shoes to us --these shoes that people on the outs can choose to pay a lot of money for. They make me wear these shoes that take me through that door that will slam my life behind me--my lady, my baby, my mom who’s suffered and done so much for me. If I could, I would run my feet to bloody pulp the other way, back in time, correct that time, stay in line. It’s too late for time to serve me. Instead, it’s the other way around.

Structuralism Analysis

As in Saussure's breakdown of signifier and signified as having the dual potential influences of the synchronic and the diachronic in our understanding and experience, so too in advertising image there can be an intended effect operating on two levels: the immediate, and the historical. "Everything that relates to the static side of our science is synchronic; everything that has to do with evolution is diachronic" (Saussure 64). Because the Converse All-Star sneaker has kept the same basic design since the 1950's, it has diachronic or historic appeal. Basketball player Chuck Taylor favored the shoe, and it became popular with 1950's greaser and rockabilly culture. The low top version of the shoe was designed by Chuck Taylor in the '60's and the sneaker was adopted as a fashion trend among punk rockers of the '70's and '80's. The same style of black tennis shoe has also been the issued shoe in the Los Angeles Juvenile Hall system since the '60's. This vintage, unchanged design, in association with sports stars, rock and roll and criminality has given the shoe a tremendous counter-culture allure. The hard reality, however, of life in juvenile hall, is not very alluring.

Works Cited

Saussure, Ferdinand. "Course in General Linguistics." Literary Theory: An Anthology. Ed. Julie Rivkin, Michael Ryan. Malden:Blackwell, 1998. 64. Print.