Jennifer Government Literary Analysis

In Jennifer Government, author Max Barry focuses on Neoliberalism and its number of forms but specifically the “Free Market” capitalism where big countries or nations all over the world are being controlled by the big US Companies or Corporation while the Government has very little to no power over them. In this book he dissects and exposed how these big companies manipulate the world, how they use the media to spread their propagandas, how they manipulate the people as a group and as an individual all for their own profit and at the expense of the poor people and sometimes even cost them their lives. The point being stressed upon here is that Neoliberalism does not focus on furthering equality among various income groups. The rich continue to make large sums of money due to the conducive environment in the economy while the lower income groups have to make do with fixed monthly wages. Hence, the gap between the rich and poor continues to broaden without any help from government regulations.

The author, Max Barry is an Australian author who receives a numerous nominees and a 2015 winner of Good Choice Readers awards Best Science Fiction, exposes Neoliberalism and its strategies and the importance of understanding how they function as well as its effect by using each character to represents the Corporation, the government, and the consumers itself. He feels that this is a major problem that we should all be aware of since we the consumer are all the victims of all their actions and also because of the fact that most important nations today follow this economic model. The US, UK, Australia, India, and most if not all European nations are capitalist economies, a system where the market is allowed to function on its own accord without regulation by the government such as the control to price any product manufactured by the company. For example, in the first chapter of the book, Nike Corporation will introduce a new line of shoes called the “Mercurys”. Prior to its release, the Nike marketing executives John Nike tricked and contracted one of the employees Hack Nike to be a sniper and murder at least 14 of the customers in line during the release of the sneakers to create a controversy about the new product to help them boost popularity of the shoes as well as build street credibility for the shoe allowing Nike to sell each pair of shoes for $2,500 a pair. $2500 for a pair of shoes and the government cannot do anything about it, to control it or to even ask for justification of the price. One of the few corporate strategies to maximize their profit even if it’ll costs someone’s life.

In this book, the retail companies have so much power that the employees adopt the corporations name as their own last name which represents “Wage Slavery” by telling the readers that the characters in this book are forced to carry the name of the company they work for or they’ll lose their job and also to create an identity, and to exist. As an example, Jennifer Government works for the government as an agent who is in charge of “The Nike Murders” investigation. Hack works for Nike, hence his full name is Hack Nike and John Nike is the Nike Marketing Executive who tricked and manipulated Hack in committing the murder as part of the marketing campaign. Hack Nike represents the consumer and/or the low class citizens, the weak who are being manipulated by corporation and in his case, just like everyone else because of his financial situation he would be a perfect victim and would easily agree to any proposal that would give him financial relief. On page 4 of this book, John Nike who in this book represents the big companies and the manipulator, approached Hack and offered him a job as if he really cared for him, Hack started to cry and John handed him a handkerchief and said “Here, do you feel better now?” “Here’s the paperwork” when John asked “You want me to sign this now?” John said “Its nothing to worry about, just the usual non-competes and nondisclosure agreements” “We need someone who can make snap decisions.” “A fast mover.” "Someone who can get things done.” “If that's not your style, well. . . let's forget we spoke. No harm done. You stick to Merchandising." the heading of the paper was written in all CAPS “CONTRACT TO PERFORM SERVICE” while the most important part of the agreement was written too small to read, it’s the part where it shows that he need to commit murder. This part of the book, is the one page and single conversation but probably the most powerful and important part that the readers should all pay attention to for this is the most common mistakes the consumers do, carelessness, a life changing mistake and how these companies can actually persuade you to do something by putting images for distraction and putting pressure on you.

Jennifer Government represents the US Government who had a really good relationship with the big companies and corporation (or John Nike) prior to the existence of Neoliberalism. On page 23 of the book, during the attack in the Nike store, Max Barry wrote “She should have seen this coming” “She identified him from the beginning when she saw his reflection in the window of Barnes & Noble. She should have realized there were two of them. He was maybe twenty feet away. He had a pistol pointed at her. There was nothing she could do. He fired” “It was like being hit by a car.". The author included these lines to illustrate that the Government should have seen it (Capitalism/Neoliberalism) coming and should have done something to stop it from happening but now it’s too late and there’s nothing they can do. Also on page 23, after the gunfire, the author wrote “As she fell, the fluorescent