Jordynn Nielsen 1

Trevor Smith

English 1010

12 July 2020

Many events throughout history have caused a rise in emigration numbers across the

globe. One significant event that has impacted emigration is the civil war happening in Syria.

Beginning around the summer of 2011, Syria has been in a civil war that has caused multiple

displacements and refugee crises. One of the biggest crises happened between 2015 and 2016,

causing some countries like Turkey to block migration. Those who are displaced from their

homes are forced to leave behind personal belongings and lose almost everything they once

owned. The United States is illustrious for it’s freedom, privilege, and opportunity it offers to its

citizens. For that reason, many people emigrate to the United States to take advantage of what

our country has to offer.

Thanks to social media, ideas from blogs, television shows, books, and many other

mediums are spread very quickly, sometimes creating trends. Professional organizer Marie

Kondo released a ​New York Times ​best seller, ​The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up​, her guide

to a minimalist lifestyle. Kondo’s method quickly spread, and the trend of decluttering spread

across America. One of Kondo’s biggest tips to get rid of old things was, if the item you’re

considering tossing does not spark immediate joy, do away with it!

In March 2016, Arielle Bernstein released an article on the ​Atlantic​ titled, ​Marie Kondo

and the Privilege of Clutter. ​Bernstein does an excellent job using pathos and logos to illustrate

why it is a privilege to both have clutter, or to choose to live a minimalist lifestyle, while also

describing why decluttering may be difficult for those who have been displaced out of their

homes and forced to leave behind belongings.​ She targets those who have privilege in order to
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explain why emigrants may struggle to declutter. Bernstein, a descendent of emigrants, describes

habits she noticed of those family members. First, when her grandparents were young, they

moved from Poland to Cuba. After, once they were married with children, her grandparents were

obligated to emigrate from Cuba to the United States.

As Arielle Bernstein planned her wedding, she realized she didn't have as many memoirs

to add as she noticed and admired that others did at their weddings. Because her family had been

uprooted from their homes a couple times, she began noticing a pattern amongst those who had

been displaced. Marie Kondo released a book about tidying up that had become popular across

the U.S.. Kondo's advice, keep only the things that bring you happiness, let go of the things you

hold on to for the mere memory it brings. Bernstein shares why that might be hard for refugees,

who had to let go of most of their belongings. Once refugees are able to regain what they had

lost, it can be hard to get rid of even the smallest, useless items. To those who have been more

privileged, like middle-class and above citizens, objects can be easily replaced so it is much

easier to let go.

Bernstein's word choice throughout the article is methodical and allows the reader to

imagine what her grandparents had gone through to create the collectors she knew. The

organization of the text keeps you tied in, playing with your emotions at the beginning and end,

but appealing to the reader’s logic in the middle to establish the purpose of the article.

Bernstein’s main strategy used in the article is pathos. By describing her grandparent’s

unfortunate experiences, it’s just one way she draws on her audience’s emotion. She describes as

the uncertainty in Europe began to escalate, her grandparents were relocated from Poland to

Cuba as young children. Although they thought that, in Cuba they had left behind the unease
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they were beginning to feel in Europe, the feeling shortly began again after Fidel Castro rose to

power. Shortly before her grandparents had a shop closed by the Cuban government, her family

had to board up the shop in order to protect it. She mentions, “the boards covering their

storefront were frequently graffitied with threatening swastikas..” not only providing imagery but

also demonstrating the fear that was most likely felt by the family. Soon after, Bernstein’s family

was displaced and decided to come to the United States, “leaving everything but a few pieces of

clothing behind.” Through Bernstein's observations, these experiences she describes as trauma,

caused not only her grandparents but her mother included, to over-collect. She recounts her

grandfather's habit of collecting many random, unnecessary items. She even goes as far as to call

her grandfather a hoarder. Although she recalls both her grandmother and mother were too

collectors, she justifies their clutter as more practical or necessary. Still, it highlights the

difficulty her family had of letting go of material possessions as a result of being forced to earlier

in their lives, again alluding to the suffrage of her family and using her audience's emotion to get

her point across.

Bernstein later goes on to mention the experiences of some of those highlighted during

the 2016 refugee crisis. She describes an article that shows abandoned belongings illustrating

“evidence of a life left behind.” For those who have been displaced and experienced unsolicited

abandonment of their belongings, it has been a traumatic experience. Bernstein expresses the

irony behind the life of a refugee and Kondo’s strategy to live as minimally as possible.

Bernstein labels herself and others as privileged when she mentions that, growing up, she

admired a more tidy, empty space because she was always surrounded by her family’s clutter.

She says, referring to living more cluttered than minimalist, “...like many who are privileged
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enough to not have to worry about having basic things, I tend to idolize the opposite…”

Bernstein then uses logos to convey the reasons why it would be easier to those who are

privileged and those who have not been forced away from their belongings to declutter or use

Marie Kondo's method. She states that as an adolescent it was easy for her as a middle-class

American to get rid of things she no longer had use for. They reason, she says, “It’s easy to see

the items we own as oppressive when we can so easily buy new ones.”

By not only bringing the emotion of those with privilege in, but by also using logic to

describe why those emotions elicit such truths, Bernstein is able to effectively explain why there

is privilege behind clutter. She uses those who live in the U.S. as an example, and mentions that,

because belongings are so easily accessible, it is a privilege that can be easily changed to a more

minimalist lifestyle. However, for those who have suffered through displacement and losing

personal belongings, they may hold on to unpracticle things. When an item can be easily

replaced, it can be easy for someone with that privilege to do so.

Word Count: 1139

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Word Cited Page

Bernstein, Arielle. “Marie Kondo and the Privilege of Clutter.” ​The Atlantic Online.​ 25 March

2016.

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/03/marie-kondo-and-the-privile

ge-of-clutter/475266/