November 19, 2008
English 1B
Essay #3
“October 7, 1996” Analysis #1
In Joe Wenderoth’s poem, titled “October 7, 1996” from the book Letters to Wendy’s, the narrator wonders if there is not an existing place in society like Wendy’s. The popular fast food restaurant is truly just being used as a symbol for all consumer spaces, not as the actual Wendy’s itself. The poem depicts a contemporary mainstream world engorged everywhere with brands, advertisements, and logos that consumers devour. The beginning of the poem questions “Why”, because ironically Wendy’s is everywhere. The realism of the question is “somewhere that is not Wendy’s” cannot not be found, but in the narrator’s mind there is no such place that is not Wendy’s.