Acceptance is a major idea and theme used in many forms of media and entertainment. This is because accepting is one of the most important values in human history. Acceptance, or more specifically, the bias about other people’s beliefs and differences caused nearly every political and social strife ever. Even right now, when we claim to have no qualms over other people’s choices and actions, President Trump enacted a travel ban on several Middle Eastern countries in order to stop “terrorists”, when in reality a majority of Middle Eastern people are not terrorists. Consequently, the ban shows that we are not as progressive as we would like to believe. Despite this law, being accepting of other people is almost always a universal theme in stories, …show more content…
Texas Congresswoman Barbara Jordan once said: “We, as human beings must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves”, which goes against the idea of nationalism and superiority expressed by so many people, and shows how important acceptance is in the real world. However, almost 70 years ago, Germany had a movement that gained an extraordinary number of followers, all of them persecuting Jews. Maus, a graphic novel by Art Spiegelman, discussed and showed the horrors and atrocities Jews went through during the Nazi regime and during World War II. Unfortunately, over 6,000,000 Jewish people were killed during the holocaust. Adolf Hitler united most of Germany against a scapegoat used throughout history and spread anti-Jewish propaganda throughout Germany and Poland. A short story, “What, of This Goldfish, Would You Wish?”, written by Etgar Keret and translated into English by Nathan Englander, discusses the idea of friendship between a goldfish and a Russian man, named Sergei, who also fled persecution from the rulers of his home
New worldly conflicts arise everyday and many of these conflicts make us question our morals as individuals and as a nation. In both “Flight Patterns” and “The Help: A Feel-Good Movie That Feels Kind of Icky” we are introduced into the conflicts that race bring about in everyday life. It is indisputable that race is hard to talk about and everyone seems to have a different stance on what is racism and what is not. In both stories, race is brought up and talked about in a way that is solely bringing truth to the issue. In Sherman Alexie’s story we see the thought process about race from someone who is not white, and in Dana Stevens’ story we see how a white woman sees controversy in a film that is supposed to be about black women. Both stories
Social psychology is a scientific study that studies how people think, feel, and how they behave under the influence of other people (Aronson, Wilson & Akert, 2013, p. 2). Thinking about what social influence really means, we tend to think of a person who tries to persuade another person to acting a certain way. It can be a form of peer pressure, like taking that first puff of a cigarette, or it can be conforming to popular societal views, such as obeying the law of the land. Fiction is a great way to learn about social psychological perspectives. Watching popular theatrical films is the perfect way to learn because it illustrates the application of many perceptions within the subject of social psychology.
The graphic novels Maus and Maus II by Art Spiegelman possess the power to make the reader understand the pain and suffering that takes place during the Holocaust. Spiegelman uses animals instead of humans in his graphic novels to represent the different races of people. The use of visual mediums in Art Spiegelman’s Maus enhances the reading of the narrative. The graphics throughout the novel help the reader fully understand everything that is happening.
From the sensitive topics, like those of ethnicity, race, mental disabilities, sexual orientation, or gender identity, society has taken some slow steps in a positive and more progressive direction regarding tolerance. It would be prudent to first take a closer look at how Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines and differentiates tolerance versus acceptance. Tolerance is defined as, “capacity to endure pain or hardship.” (Merriam-Webster) Acceptance on the other hand is defined as, “A taking or consenting to take something offered; 2. Approval.” (Merriam-Webster) The most identifiable difference between these two concepts is the interactive consent present in acceptance that is not as apparent in tolerance. Tolerance is a more passive concept,
In Maus the Germans dislike the Jews and with this discrimination and mistreatment, it caused Vladek and his family many hardships by trying to survive, “It was many, many such stories-synagogues burned, Jews beaten with no reason, whole towns pushing out all Jews-Each story worse than the other” (Speigalman) this quote explains how the Germans just didn’t like the Jew and that’s why they were being beaten and their businesses were being taken away. There are people in this world that don’t like a certain race, and think that their race is better than others; like the Nazis in Maus who were German, didn’t like the Jew so they killed and mistreated them. In the story by Spiegalman Jews were sent to concentration camps that the Nazis built to slowly torture and kill them. Controlled by Adolf Hitler, the Nazis took away the businesses of Jews and their own personal belongings; Spiegalman writes, “Has the family been taking good care of my Bielsko textile factory? Don’t you know?..All the Jewish businesses have been taken over by the Aryan Managers” (Speigalman 76) this quote explains how the Germans were taking over the Jewish people’s businesses and there was nothing that they can do about
Discrimination is too common in the current day and age. It is used to help ignorant, weak people with insecurities to feel better about themselves. Humanity as a whole needs to learn to be more accepting of others, differences and all. Disney Pixar’s “Day and Night” is a short film about two characters, Day and Night, who couldn't look past each other’s differences in the beginning, yet by the end, they developed a mutual appreciation of each other through getting over their fear of the unknown and discriminating others. In “Day and Night,” the characters’ lack of understanding and prejudice paradoxically assists the characters, Day and Night, in developing tolerance for each other and learning to embrace their differences. Ultimately, “Day and Night” proposes that even though the unknown is not well-perceived by others until they experience the said "unknown" themselves, humanity should be less judgmental and more open-minded because nobody is perfect and everyone is different and perfectly unique in their own way.
Movies, one can argue, are one of America’s greatest pastimes. Unfortunately, after 9/11, films have become increasingly prejudiced against American Muslims. In movies Muslims are frequently portrayed negatively. According to James Emery, a professor of Anthropology, Hollywood profits off of “casting individuals associated with specific negative stereotypes”. This is due to the fact that viewers automatically link characters with their clichéd images (Emery). For Muslims, the clichéd image is of the violent fundamentalist, who carried out the terroristic attacks on 9/11. As a result, the main stereotypes involved in movies display Muslims as extremists, villains, thieves, and desert nomads. An example of a movie that has such a negative character role for Muslims in film is Disney’s cartoon Aladdin, depict...
The Maus series of books tell a very powerful story about one man’s experience in the Holocaust. They do not tell the story in the conventional novel fashion. Instead, the books take on an approach that uses comic windows as a method of conveying the story. One of the most controversial aspects of this method was the use of animals to portray different races of people. The use of animals as human races shows the reader the ideas of the Holocaust a lot more forcefully than simply using humans as the characters.
In Art Spiegelman’s Maus, the audience is led through a very emotional story of a Holocaust survivor’s life and the present day consequences that the event has placed on his relationship with the author, who is his son, and his wife. Throughout this novel, the audience constantly is reminded of how horrific the Holocaust was to the Jewish people. Nevertheless, the novel finds very effective ways to insert forms of humor in the inner story and outer story of Maus. Although the Holocaust has a heart wrenching effect on the novel as a whole, the effective use of humor allows for the story to become slightly less severe and a more tolerable read.
Art Spiegelman's Maus II is a book that tells more than the story of one family's struggle to live thought the Holocaust. It gives us a look into the psyche of a survivor's child and how the Holocaust affected him and many other generations of people who were never there at all. Maus II gives the reader a peek into the psyche of Art Spiegelman and the affects of having two parents that survived the Holocaust had on him. Spiegelman demonstrates the affects of being a survivor's child in many ways throughout the book. Examining some of these will give us a better understanding of what it was like to be a part of the Holocaust.
“I'm not talking about YOUR book now, but look at how many books have already been written about the Holocaust. What's the point? People haven't changed... Maybe they need a newer, bigger Holocaust.” These words were spoken by author Art Spielgelman. Many books have been written about the Holocaust; however, only one book comically describes the non-superficial characteristics of it. Art Spiegelman authors a graphic novel titled Maus, a book surrounding the life a Jewish man living in Poland, named Vladek. His son, Art Spielgelman, was primarily focused on writing a book based on his father’s experiences during the Holocaust. While this was his main focus, his book includes unique personal experiences, those of which are not commonly described in other Holocaust books. Art’s book includes the troubles his mother, Anja, and his father, Vladek, conquered during their marriage and with their family; also, how his parents tried to avoid their children being victimized through the troubles. The book includes other main characters, such as: Richieu Spiegelman, Vladek first son; Mala Spiegelman, Vladek second wife; and Françoise, Art’s French wife. Being that this is a graphic novel, it expresses the most significant background of the story. The most significant aspect about the book is how the characters are dehumanized as animals. The Jewish people were portrayed as mice, the Polish as pigs, the Germans (Nazis in particular) as cats, and Americans as dogs. There are many possible reasons why Spiegelman uses animals instead of humans. Spiegelman uses cats, dogs, and mice to express visual interests in relative relationships and common stereotypes among Jews, Germans, and Americans.
Conformity is a concept that has intrigued psychologists for decades; a concept that has been the foundation of numerous studies, books, and that has been subtly woven into the media. Most of the research done on conformity has to do with what can cause conforming behavior and when conforming behavior is most prevalent. There are generally two types of influences that can cause conforming behavior, informational social influences and normative social influence. Both deal with the when and why of conformity in society and what situations typically cause a group or one or two people to conform. The most powerful and dangerous type of conformity is conformity to authority, which can cause people to obey orders that they would normally not follow in any other situation. With that being said, informational social influence can fuel conforming behavior, especially in instances when the situation is a crisis, ambiguous, and when other people in the situation have authority or expertise.
We start by defining both the term and the concept of social psychology. Social psychology is the study of how the conscious and unconscious mind interacts to influence our behaviors, emotions, and thought processes. The concept of social psychology allows us to understand how people react when there is an actual or implied presence of another individual and/or group. Society has a large influence over human behavior. Things such as peer pressure along with parental influences, in-group versus out-group bias, group dynamics, and the implied and/or actual presence of personal principles play a large role in how one functions in everyday life. Each of these moving factors according to Marcus Aurelius are merely stepping-stones to the path
Discuss the social psychological approach in psychology and identify the kinds of questions that social psychologists attempt to answer.
Our world is constantly changing and it requires a society that is well versed in understanding the problems deriving from culture differences and tolerance of one another’s beliefs and perceptions. We are dealing with systemic problems in education, economic, government, religion and culture differences.