Adam Gopnik Bumping Into Mr Ravioli Analysis

Cristale Espinola
100R Basic Composition RQ
Instructor: Jared Weigley
25 November 2014
Capitalism: America’s Imaginary Friend Capitalism and America have a love affair that is mutually a false belief. Productivity and competition make up a portion of what capitalism is. Whereas busyness is the action capitalism creates. As a whole, the incorporation of busyness adopts the smallest aspects of everyday life. In the Adam Gopnik’s essay “Bumping into Mr. Ravioli,” he writes about his three-year-old daughter’s frustration trying to find the time to play with her imaginary friend, Charlie Ravioli. Olivia creates an imaginary friend Mr. Ravioli, a busy New Yorker who “lived in an apartment on Madison and Lexington.” She would frequently state
to her parents that she had “bumped into Charlie today,” and would illustrate imaginary episodes of going out for coffee, grabbing lunch, or racing across town in a taxi. The problem with Charlie Ravioli is that he is always too busy for Olivia. Busyness can serve as a kind of existential comfort or a cover for emptiness, being completely booked or busy in demand throughout the whole day. Arlie Russell Hochschild argues with similar thoughts in her essay, “From the Frying Pan into the Fire.” Hochschild argues how capitalism prioritizes work first and family second. The concept of capitalism is applied through the efficiency people can apply in their lives. Anxiety builds up when capitalism lacks communication and applies busyness in everyday life. Rather than being created from some trauma, Olivia Gopnik’s stories about Charlie Ravioli develops her observation of busyness from her surroundings.
Busyness is building up in daily lives, creating isolation between one another. New York City is seen as a busy city where everyone is always on the run, and there is no time to stop and chat. Gopnik worries about Olivia’s imaginary friend who is too busy to play with her. Therefore, he consults his sister who is a developmental psychologist about this situation. On the phone Gopnik’s sister states, “I’m sure that doesn’t occur anywhere in the research literature. That sounds completely New York.” And then she hung up” (Qtd. in Gopnik 155). Through the conversation, Gopnik’s sister assures her brother that because he lives in New York, Olivia’s imaginary friend is created from her surroundings. Charlie Ravioli is just another New Yorker with a hectic daily schedule that struggles to spend time with Olivia. It is likely to create a busy imaginary friend if the environment revolves around busyness. Therefore, Gopnik’s sister saw this situation normal. Met by the nature of capitalism to create long workdays and hectic work schedules, working people struggle to find time. Hochschild argues the meaning of capitalism and how it serves as a symbol in community and family life. She writes, “This means that working long hours and spending a lot of money–– instead of spending time together–– have increasingly become how we say “I love you” at home” (187). Due to the demand of capitalism, working long hours benefits the increase of income, which eventually leads to spending more money. By earning more money, family members are able to spend more on products, or goods. Instead of working for less hours and having a good quality time together, people are going out and spending their money. Work and busyness seem to correlate one another as it has become more important than family.
Capitalism does not only change lifestyles, but it causes everyone to run a similar lifestyle and schedule.
The importance of working and family is always facing one another. Working parents tend to spend less quality time with their children because of work demand. In modern America there’s more responsibilities that have to be taken cared of. Now, there is no time to time to waste. Gopnik worries about his daughter’s imaginary friend by writing, “I was concerned, though, that Charlie Ravioli might also be the sign of some “trauma,” some loneliness in Olivia’s life reflected in imaginary form” (154). Olivia who is just a three-year-old child is seeing the effects of capitalism. Her older brother is busy with his activities and her parents are busy with work. Olivia’s mimicking of her mother created this imaginary friend called Charlie Ravioli. She would constantly hear her mother talk on the phone with friends about work and Olivia would mimic that. Her imaginary friend who is too busy to play with her bounces between work and meeting, leaving no time to play with Olivia Gopnik. Mr. Ravioli’s character is a suggestion to the busyness she sees in her daily life. Therefore, Olivia is just creating and mimicking everything that she sees. The way Olivia rushes when she speaks on the phone is learnt from her mother. Parents take up a huge role in their children. Likewise, Hochschild argues how children as creating a similar lifestyle as their parents. She writes, “In other families, parents seemed to encourage children to develop schedules parallel to and as their own” (190). Due to the increase of the working demand, parents are trying to make their children’s schedules similar to theirs. Parents are constantly lacking time and cannot do certain activities with their children, by having parallel schedules everyone will be able to enjoy time together. Creating a parallel schedule is going to keep children busy as well. Eventually they will develop a similar lifestyle
like their parents.
Most working people can relate to being on the run and lacking family time. There is a limited amount of time available to fully enjoy spending time and interacting with the family. Gopnik writes about his daughter, Olivia’s imaginary friend of always being on the run. He compares Charlie Ravioli busyness with New Yorkers by writing, “Why are New Yorkers always bumping into Charlie Ravioli and grabbing lunch, instead of sitting down with him and exchanging intimacies, as friends should, as people do in Paris and Rome?” (156). Gopnik is able to see the New York life in general. The creation Olivia has made, Mr. Ravioli who resembles New Yorkers does not have the time to sit down and have a conversation. When Gopnik includes the term “bumping into Charlie Ravioli,” it is like bumping into any busy person going to work. It just compares Mr. Ravioli to any other person on the run. Efficiency is similar to being on the run because it is able to shape or mold the interaction between one another. Hochschild argues that the Quaker Oats cereal is a solution for lack of time and a replacement for love. She writes, “The ad suggests that it is the cereal itself that solves the problem. It conveys love because it is hot, but it permits efficiency because it’s quickly made” (184). Although the cereal portrays a solution by being efficient, it does not convey true feelings. Indeed, it can convey love because it is hot, but it made in a rush that saves time for working mothers. Having a homemade breakfast allows a better interaction as the mother can converse with her child while cooking. Being on the run eventually lacks engagement to fulfill family time.
Instead of searching for free time, busyness ends up filling in the free time. Busyness does not create productivity instead it contributes to a continuous anxiety. Gopnik starts to see the nature of having a New York life by writing, “We are instructed to believe that we are busier because we have to work harder to be more productive, but everybody knows that busyness and productivity have a dubious, arm’s-length relationship” (156). Gopnik realizes that he and fellow New Yorkers are told to believe in order to be busy, they need to work hard. But instead they are loosing the meaning of communication, or interaction. Not only New Yorkers but also working people tend to engage more and more into work. Because the main priority is work and productivity; capitalism isolates relationships by losing communication. Being more productive tends to keep an arbitrary state of mind, which is what Gopnik sees. Capitalism does not only create a belief of working hard will have a benefit afterwards, but it is competitive to gain the most income for productivity. Advertisements suggest increase of productivity for the benefits of companies to gain more consumers. Hochschild defines capitalism by writing, “After all, American capitalism is, in reality, a highly complex, internally diverse economic system for making, advertising, and selling things” (187). Capitalism doesn’t allow free time, it asks for a more demanding productivity. The Quaker Oats cereal advertisement is an example of capitalism. The efficiency the cereal creates not only benefits the manufacturer, but the consumer as well. Due to being efficient it provides working mothers with a solution to their lack of time because the product is very complex. This capitalism tries to sell as much as it can for the benefit of businesses and its efficiency. Therefore, its productivity needs to increase to be able to make, advertise, and sell.
The whole concept of busyness parents portray produces the imagination of children. For example, Olivia Gopnik creates an imaginary friend who is even too busy to play with her. Olivia’s imaginary friend, Charlie Ravioli is the mimicking of a daily New Yorker who is always so busy. Charlie Ravioli who is also on the run does not have time for anything and is constantly working or in meetings. The competition capitalism puts up into working people by demanding more work less family time. The mass production that capitalism brings up in works develops competition for more income. Busyness is starting to develop not only at work, but also when there is free time. Instead of spending time together during the given free time, we have become more engaged in working. The anxieties that build up in daily lives create replacements for loneliness that develop due to capitalism. Children are often expressing their own feelings by attributing them to their imaginary friend just how Olivia did. She is able to mimic adult conversations about voicemails, appointments, and lunch dates. Charlie Ravioli’s unavailability reflects the adult world Olivia witnesses. She has learned the language of busyness from her mother and the meaning of being busy. Capitalism appeals to consumer needs, but it can be solve anxities by giving priority to family life.

Works Cited
Brazier, Michelle J. Points of Departure: A Collection of Contemporary Essays. Third ed.
Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.
Gopnik, Adam. “Bumping into Mr. Ravioli” Brazier 153-162
Hochschild, Arlie Russell. “From the Frying Pan into the Fire” Brazier 183-194