In the introduction of the reading, the essay opens with two quotes from Donald Duck, while both quotes made me question the teachings of Walt Disney, the second caught more of my attention. It reads, "Baby frogs will be big frogs someday, which bring high prices on the market... I'm going to fix some special frog food and speed up the growth of those little hoppers!" I took a particular fascination with this quote because of the blatant campaign for capitalism. As I was reading Introduction to Part II I found myself curious about how Walt Disney presented themes of capitalism in his comics, I didn't doubt he did but reading that quote shocked me because it was so obvious. Now as a young child it wouldn't stand out to me, nor do I think it stands out to most children because we don't have much context for the material at that age however looking back at the language used it's quite obvious that Disney is conditioning the younger generations to adopt and think with a capitalistic mindset.
It's quite astounding that lines like these go right over our heads, young or old, if we are not looking critically at material this would not provoke any strong feelings. We would simply carry on consuming this media without realizing the effects it has on shaping our narrative in the world. This can be applied to all media we consume, I am not in a constant state of critical analysis when I stream movies or tv shows and so I sometimes find myself taken aback when watching film reviews and find out something about the piece of media that was completely lost on me. For example, I remember first learning about how the Matrix was an innuendo for the trans experience. I never once considered the movie in that context before and yet after I was informed it made perfect sense. It's very telling of how powerful and dangerous media is. We are constantly engaging with material that is either consciously or subconsciously telling us to behave, think, or act a certain way. Dorfman calling attention to how Disney is an agent of capitalism and how that affects generations to come is a powerful and necessary theory.