It seems to be that society’s opinions cause people to pass judgement. Throughout history, the number of people being judged is increasing. It is becoming challenging to state an opinion or belief without receiving backlash. David Sedaris used different syntactic devices to convey how he feels about society’s opinions and judgment. This essay will focus on how the opinions from society can create judgment.
In this passage, Sedaris uses many syntactic devices such as sentence structure and flashbacks to convey how the Tomkeys were judged for the absence of a T.V. in their home. By allowing the content from the T.V. to influence their thoughts, the neighbors ridiculed the Tomkeys for celebrating Halloween on the wrong day, for buying a boat
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From the influence of his mother’s values, curiosity began to build inside of the child, causing him to spy on the Tomkeys. He started judging the family, calling their lives puny, uninteresting, and inadequate because their actions did not match to his beliefs he learned from the T.V. The T.V. serves the purpose of a symbol, stating that this moving picture box controls how a culture is formed. Without the T.V., a person is not able to connect appropriately, they are unable to adapt to the outside world, their knowledge of current events is nonexistent. Organizing the sequence of events in a certain format assisted Sedaris’ metaphorical periodic sentence, producing the comprehension of how the opinions established by civilization initiate judgment. David used a small plot of background information about the characters to lay a foundation for the end paragraph, in which the young boy comes to a revelation about the Tomkeys. The author wraps up the passage by listing relatable situations in today’s …show more content…
Using the ability to see the whole world, groups of people who do not assimilate properly become labeled and forced into a stereotypical boxes produced by the dominating voice. Social norms are becoming more widely known and accepted, allowing concepts to spread further and faster. The concept of beauty nowadays is tall, fit with the right curves, a pretty face, and other body appearances. Those who do not fit into the concept are outcasted, talked about within the community like the Tomkeys. Or how by simply posting an honest comment about a certain topic leads to the poster being heavily attacked by opposing people. Every word is taken to the extreme in many cases, to where the original message is lost. The increasing social ideals are generating new judgments that are forged by a majority thought, not an original
He brings up the example, “Why do so many Americans say they want their children to watch less TV, yet continue to expand the opportunities for them to watch it?” This not only points out the original thread of thinking he was raised on clashing with society’s norms today, it also brings into play his use of rhetorical questions. By using rhetorical questions such as the one previously stated as well as, “More importantly, why do so many people no longer consider the physical world worth watching?” This continues to reinforce his use of the guilty tone to make readers reflect on how technology is replacing
The uniqueness of our minds and our cognition is irreplaceable. Beauty, and reverence of the voice lie in the opinions it resonates. We take aesthetic pleasure in the speech of those who motivate us and adopt from them a number of values and beliefs that we agree with. The likelihood of individuals basing their ideals and decision making process off of accessible and prolonged exposure to certain influences is great. These underlying unidimensional prejudices cause us to be biased in our opinions. Various forms of literature are able to help their readers to become more aware of their prejudices. Though the messages we adopt from these texts, we are able to realize the importance of basing our opinions from multiple sources and perspectives. Literature has traveled great lengths to help me become more cognitive of my prejudices, and encourages me to seek different perspectives before formulating an opinion.
People in this novel are afraid of themselves. They fear the thought of knowing, which leads them to depend on others to think for them. Since they are not thinking for themselves, they need something to occupy their time. This is where television comes in. Television, in turn, leads to a whole host of problems: violence, depression, and even suicide.
The world is filled with many different types of societies and cultures. This is due to the fact that many people share dissimilar beliefs and ideas, as well as diverse ways of life. People lived under different circumstances and stipulations, therefore forming cultures and societies with ideas they formulated, themselves. These two factors, society and culture, are what motivate people to execute the things that they do. Many times, however, society and culture can cause downgrading effects to an assemblage if ever it is corrupt or prejudiced. Society and culture not only influences the emotions individuals have toward things like age differences, religion, power, and equality but also the actions they perform as a result.
Gone are the days of legalized slavery, of Nazi Germany, of women being incapable of having a notable opinion. No longer is there a system of racial segregation adopted by an entire country, complete white supremacy or lynchings performed by the Ku Klux Klan. Yet, although we are no longer exposed to such past experiences and despite us living in a world where diversity is embraced more than ever, the existence of prejudice remains. Today we have universally come to accept multiculturalism, varied ethnic backgrounds and those populations who historically were forever stigmatized. But in spite of these developments prejudice has manifested itself in other, more subtle ways and no matter how modernized society become such unfavourable attitudes
There are some literary devices or methods that can be applied in analyzing a given story that can either be short or long. Other aspects include literary devices, contrast, repetition, and anomalies (Wallek and Warren, 1956). In this task, I will use the short story, The First Day, which is written by Edward P. Jones. I will provide a summary of the story and later analyze it by identifying the devices used and how they have been applied to bring out the meaning of the story. The story is about a little girl seeing her mother as a flawed woman. The first day of school or the young girl, she found out her mother is not perfect. It’s not easy when you grew up expecting something, but after a while you find out the opposite is completely right.
Before the story ends he thinks about himself and his actions towards the Tomkeys. He refers to himself and states, "He's a human being, but also he's a pig, surrounded by trash and gorging himself so that others may be denied. Were this the only image in the world, you'd be forced to give it your full attention, but fortunately there were others." This is when he finally realizes how he showed himself to the Tomkeys. The opinion that he might be expressing about television is that it's a everyday thing that most people have in their homes, so it would be weird not to have one in your home or to not believe in it. Sedaris comments, "Belief implied that television had a master plan and that you were against it. It also suggested that you thought too
The many evils that exist within television’s culture were not foreseen back when televisions were first put onto the market. Yet, Postman discovers this very unforgiveable that the world did not prepare itself to deal with the ways that television inherently changes our ways of communication. For example, people who lived during the year 1905, could not really predict that the invention of a car would not make it seem like only a luxurious invention, but also that the invention of the car would strongly affect the way we make decisions.
Kosinski uses Chauncey Gardner, the main character of the story, to show how media can affect a person. Chauncey loves TV and is always watching it in his free time. Today, that seems to be the most popular hobby that goes on within households. Adults, teens, and children are constantly watching TV. In some families, television is even watched during dinner time. Since Chauncey was kept inside from the outside world his entire life, he never got the chance to get real lifetime experiences. Everything he knew was learned from watching TV which reflects how society is today. Nowadays, people learn most information from the media. Whether it’s from the TV, radio, newspapers, internet, YouTube, and social media networks, people now have access to information right at their fingertips. It’s not like in the old days when everyone learned from textbooks, adults, phone calls, face-to-face conversation, or physical experience. Experiences are now virtually learned through media which is how Chauncey learned everything that he knows. It got to the point where Chauncey thought he was on TV, and he even acted as if he were a character on the television shows. In the movie, when Chauncey and EE were kissing, Chauncey did not know what he was doing. He was just mimicking movements that he was watching on TV. Once the show stopped, so would Chauncey. Kosinski uses this scene to explain that the media plays a big pa...
Author also point out television undermines the family. Most parents are now relying on outside sources such...
...s behavior in different points-of view before passing judgment. The way a person is raised, the societal views of others, the double-standard that is imposed, and judgment ruins freedom because a person may not be able to have an appropriate response to a given situation because others may disapprove of their response. This text shows many conceptual ideas about society and the way one should act in different cultures. Therefore, this is vital in the fact that everyone understands that each person views the world differently than they view the world. James shows us how to see different points-of-view and gives us a better understanding of the pressures to conform to society. Therefore, having all the knowledge of behavior and societal views a person could help others better understand this dilemma and start discouraging this type of judgment on others in society.
TV and not be all disturbed” (Saunders). The usage of vulgar language along with an illogical reason has intentionally reduces readers’ sympathy for this illiterate single mother. The confidence in her words is also a sign of her foolishness since she falsely believes that having the GED alone will ultimately grants her a better, even after witnessing Thomas’s vulnerable experience at the Joysticks. Although Jade appears to be an inferior woman, the toughness of her speech makes her an inimical figure, comparing to his poor brother who finished high school. By using the contradiction between Thomas and his sister, Saunders implies the importance of education for the poor. Though, it is also arguable whether Thomas is as lucky as Jade argues earlier, since after all Thomas is the one who needs to carry the burden of this troublesome family.
Society judging, is something we cannot run away from. Society is inevitable. Mary Shelley demonstrated in her novel how society is ignorant, and looks for the easy way of judging things, which is by only knowing the superficial perspectives. The novel of Frankenstein gives a brief message of how society is, and at the same time it gives us a lesson. We should be less ignorant as a society, and take the time to reflect things before we judge
People no longer know how to make up ideas independently. An example of how their society has become so unintelligent is when Mildred explains to Montag how her favorite television show works. She tells him, ‘“When it comes time for the missing lines, they all look at me out of the three walls and I say the lines.”’ (20). This television show that Mildred, and many other people in their society adore, is much like the popular twenty-first century nickelodeon cartoon, Dora the Explorer, which is aimed for toddlers. In their society the television shows come with a script and they have to say a line when it is their turn; the characters will just wait until you respond to proceed (20). This is a very strong example of how people in this society are choosing to spend their free time doing things that are not productive. Instead of reading a book or learning a new language, these people will rather sit in their parlors and waste time, because they are so unaccustomed to thinking and contemplating things. Since no one wants to question things, and think critically, their society cannot possibly be able to
Throughout the book, McKibben compares the two experiences, contrasting the amount of useful information he received from nature, as opposed to the amount of useless, hollow information the television provided. He goes on in the book to make several very important observations about how the television has fundamentally changed our culture and lifestyle, from the local to the global level. Locally, McKibben argues, television has a detrimental effect on communities.