Advertisements

At the end of Harper’s Weekly, readers find two pages of advertisements. These advertisements are for gold watches, the Union Pacific Railroad, and tea and coffee. These products and investments are similar to the Moonstone in that they are tools and items of imperialism. The railroad transports imported good from other countries and the coffee beans were taken from other countries. All of the goods advertised in the ads serve to enhance the imperialistic undertones found in The Moonstone. A reader’s own consumerism and greed would be piqued by these advertisements. They would have just completed a novel that describes the detriment of greed and all of the torment that the taking of the Moonstone brought. They would have also just read the article about teaching their children the value of generosity. Then they would immediately be shown advertisements for watches, investments, and coffee. Again, their attention may be drawn to the final line of The Moonstone. They would understand that greed and imperialism persist and that as long as these qualities exist, there is potential for the moonstone to be robbed again. This would oppose the idea of finality in the novel because readers of Harper’s Weekly would have their own greediness heightened by the advertisements and would remember that that is what brought the curse of the Moonstone in the first place. Though Leverenz argues that Harper’s Weekly critiques British imperialism, in this case, the American readers would be reminded of their own selfishness and the potential for the Moonstone to curse again as well as the imperialism and greediness in American society would once again be brought into focus.