George's Marvelous Medicine

By situating the story on a farm that functions as both home and business, the stage is set for an exploration of the effects of consumerism and capitalism.

George’s search for ingredients to add to his medicine provides commentary on consumerism. George proceeds methodically from room to room, offering a panoramic view of popular products in the home. He starts in the bathroom since, as he thinks to himself, “There are always lots of funny things in a bathroom” (14). As George works, he reads product labels, many of which consist of silly names, such as “NEVERMORE PONGING DEODORANT SPRAY”; exaggerated marketing claims, including “SUPERWHITE FOR AUTOMATIC WASHING MACHINES. DIRT […] WILL DISAPPEAR LIKE MAGIC” (18); and bizarre warnings, such as a carton of flea powder warning that “THIS POWDER, IF EATEN, WILL MAKE THE DOG EXPLODE” (20). The lasting impression after George ranges through the house adding dozens of items to the mixture is one of excess: The Krankys live in a sea of products designed to make their lives pleasant and convenient. These products are presented not so much as bad or evil, as insignificant: Even their combined power in George’s medicine fails to produce any significant moral effect on Grandma. Modern products may make life easier, but they cannot build character or resolve life’s more complex issues.

The producer side of the capitalist equation is also considered in Mr. Kranky’s attempt to recreate and mass-produce George’s medicine. After Mr. Kranky suggests that they make “more and more and more” of George’s medicine (63), George asks, “But why do we need more, Dad?” (63). His childlike perception implies that Mr. Kranky should be satisfied with their already comfortable lives. Mr. Kranky, however, unveils his plan to sell the medicine all around the world, making them rich and famous—and, as an afterthought, reducing world hunger. As an entrepreneur, Mr. Kranky has developed an insatiable desire for money. As he struggles to recreate George’s medicine, questions about ingredients, quantities, and the mixing process prove impossible to overcome, leaving him and George with a batch of medicine that has the opposite effect to the one they intended: It causes things to shrink instead of grow. Mr. Kranky’s obsessive desire to produce more of George’s medicine reflects the powerful allure of the profit motive, while his failure to produce the medicine reflects the volatility, or even futility, of such schemes. George’s Marvelous Medicine highlights inherent absurdities and limitations within commercialism through George’s product discovery throughout his home and Mr. Kranky’s enthusiasm for expounding on his son’s creation.