In an excerpt from the book called Inside the Mouse: Work and Play at Disney World, Susan Willis reviews for the reader the ways in which Disney World can be considered a private state and a seamless corporate product. Willis presents supporting evidence in the form of participant observation and in depth analysis, and through the use of those tools, synthesizes opinionated theses of what Disney World is truly about. The central thesis of the book excerpt titled Disney World: Public Use/Private State is the notion that Disney as a corporation values the success and expansion of their endeavors over the human.
Initially, the essay provides an anecdote to connect the reader to the analytical style that Willis utilizes. This fleck of information carries into an exposition of many methods that Disney World uses to shift their visitors into a tranquil mindset so that they may be more easily goaded into conforming to the parks implicit etiquette. The sterile environment of Disney’s private state with its lack of natural occurrences like
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Susan Willis constantly reiterates this idea to buttress her stance on the company’s value of the image over the human. Explicitly stating her opinion of the matter, she retorts, “As I see it, the individual’s right to imagine and to give expression to unique ways of seeing is at stake in struggles against private property” (Willis 350). Her debate rests on the fact that Mickey Mouse is a historical and cultural figure that exemplifies the advent of animated cartoons. Even so, Disney tour guides reportedly seized a roll of film containing “illicit photos” that revealed the human beings beneath carpet character suits. Such visceral attacks on any attempt to sully the social fabric of a corporate entity truly denote the gravity that Disney assigns to their