From The Frying Pan Into The Fire Analysis

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There are tremendous changes in human history from preliterate society to today. Through the civilization, the form of community was also changed from tribal society to the nation. As changing of the notion of community, the sense of economy for the member in the society has been changed. The advent of the capitalist society which aims at making profits influences the changing of view of family and community. Arlie Russell Hochschild, the author of “From the Frying Pan into the Fire”, explains that capitalism and its market influence on ideas for ‘family’ and ‘community’. Hochschild claims that spending time with family was a priority in the past, but it is not a priority anymore in capitalist society. Efficiency takes a priority in capitalism …show more content…

As there are many different types of people, different standard of success are existing. High education level could be one of the standards of success for someone and excellent reputation could be other standards. Patriarchal period, which dominated by religion such as Christianity or Catholic, people taught various elements for success in life including morality and ethics. However, Capitalism and its market only focus on property and money so the visible wealthy becomes the only one important element for success. In fact, Hochschild illustrates the study which proves the changing of people’s preference in life. According to Hochschild, “between 1975 and 1991, the role of family in people’s idea of “the good life” declined while the importance of having money increased” (187). In this study, it is proved that having a lot of money is more important than family for the quality of life. In other words, people might be satisfied when they become rich in terms of the successful life. The money is not only productive conclusion for success, but capitalism forces to make people think in this way. For instance, Chua indicates the Chinese parents’ parenting style which might be great example how the capitalism takes important role in family and how it represents in parenting. In Chua’s article, she claims that “the Chinese believe that the best way to protect their children is by preparing them for the future […]” (56). Because of this reason, Chinese parents requires their children to get perfect grades and they cannot accept A minus or B as a children’s academic result. For Chinese parents, having excellent skill might be able to lead their children to successful life in the future. In the view of capitalism, Chinese parents’ parenting styles seems based on capitalism market system. Capitalism market system divide only ‘useful’ and ‘useless’ and its influences

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