This essay classifies the wide variety of bumper stickers found on American roads into three meaningful divisions: humor, attitude, and importance. Using specific examples drawn from popular culture, politics, and everyday driving, the paper demonstrates how each category captures different aspects of a driver's personality, values, and lifestyle. It also acknowledges that many bumper stickers overlap across categories, reflecting the complex and layered nature of these small but expressive cultural artifacts. Ultimately, the essay argues that bumper stickers are a significant and revealing part of American car culture.
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This paper demonstrates the classification and division rhetorical strategy, a foundational expository technique in which a broad subject is broken into meaningful, non-arbitrary categories. The writer establishes criteria for each division, applies those criteria consistently, and then complicates the scheme by noting that examples can belong to more than one category — showing analytical maturity beyond a simple list.
The essay follows a classic five-paragraph structure: an introduction that presents the subject and previews three categories, three body paragraphs each devoted to one division (humor, attitude, importance), and a conclusion that recaps all three and introduces the concept of overlap. The introduction and conclusion mirror each other closely, using the same set of bumper sticker examples to frame the entire argument.
Bumper stickers are everywhere. In rush-hour traffic they stare drivers in the face, and they amuse shoppers on the way back to their cars in mall parking lots. Bumper stickers are drivers' way of shouting out their psychological attitudes, their favorite jokes, or their political and religious values. For example, someone who proudly displays the bumper sticker "Grace Happens!" is most likely a Christian who holds Christian values. That same driver might also appreciate a sticker suggesting "Evolution is Intelligent," which hints at intelligent design. He or she may or may not be able to appreciate the humor behind statements like "Come to the Dark Side — We Have Cookies!" or "Yes, I'm evil but it's part of my charm," both of which indicate irreverence and humor. Similarly, a bumper sticker that reads "Let Go of My Ears" suggests the driver is concerned about tailgaters — meaning the person displaying "Wheeeeee!" probably shouldn't be driving behind that particular car.
Because of the sheer number of bumper stickers on American highways, it can be helpful to place them into a handful of meaningful divisions. Those divisions offer the driver stuck in traffic a fun mental exercise and can lend insight into the personality, gender, culture, and lifestyle of the driver. Regardless of whether the message is personal or political, the three most significant and meaningful bumper sticker divisions are humor, attitude, and importance.
Many — if not most — bumper stickers belong to the humorous division. The range of humorous slogans differs only in the type of humor used: silly, subtle, or sarcastic. For example, a sticker that reads "Grace Happens!" is subtly humorous. Even as it suggests a strong tie to Christian social, religious, and political values, the slogan also satirizes the less savory popular-culture phrase it echoes. Some bumper stickers are simply and overtly funny without sending any deeper political or social message. The sticker "Caution — Driver is Legally Blonde" evokes a chuckle through its reference to the Reese Witherspoon film, its nod to "dumb blonde" jokes, and its spoof of the more serious term legally blind. "Come to the Dark Side — We Have Cookies" is another purely humorous slogan with no deeper meaning beyond the laugh it generates.
Some humorous bumper stickers also reveal the driver's personal attitudes, placing them more squarely in the attitude division. The slogan "I'm not opinionated, I'm just always right" is certainly sarcastic, but it belongs here because the driver is clearly making a statement about his or her own personality. Similarly, "Yes, I'm evil but it's part of my charm" offers a window into the driver's self-image. Both stickers reveal a great deal about the driver's character. "Wheeeeee!" likewise shows that the driver enjoys speed; the attitude is irreverent, much like that of the individual who sardonically claims that being "evil" is charming.
The opposite attitude toward driving is embodied by "Let Go of My Ears," which suggests that the driver dislikes tailgating or loud honking. Even so, that driver uses humor to convey a personal stance — demonstrating how self-expression and humor can overlap within a single category. What unites the attitude division is a focus on the ego and personality of the driver rather than on an external political or social cause.
Bumper stickers are a vast class of quips designed specifically for the backs of cars. Because there are so many in the popular arsenal, it can be immensely helpful to divide them into three major categories. Based on the types of bumper stickers displayed by American drivers, the slogans can be organized into those that are humorous, those that are attitudinal, and those that are generally important.
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