Societal Control

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In life, we endure many situations in which we have to make difficult decisions. For the most part, these decisions are based on the people around us, or society. Basically, society controls us totally. This idea is reiterated in the writings of Greg Graffin, Virginia Woolf, and John Balzar.

The effect that society had on Greg Graffin was severe. Forced to move at a young age to California was a difficult change. The scenery was different, as well as the culture. Greg said, "I thought the beach was a place to go swimming, not a symbol for a way of life." (17) This shows that what he originally perceived the ocean to be was completely different in this new society. Different things were expected of him as well. He was expected to know about ."..rock'n'roll and sharing their covert collections of black beauties, Quaaludes, and joints." (18) But since he didn't know about these things, he was labeled as a ."..second-class loser" and ."..became friends with a particular class of people labeled geeks, nerds, dorks, wimps, and pussies (or worse, wussies)." (18) This all is a result of the pressures society had on him. It also shows the factor society has on everyone else. Everyone that was in the `cool' class felt it necessary to uphold a level of standards. This, in turn, resulted in people like Greg finding alternate `classes.' Even the class that Greg took part in wasn't his own doing. He wasn't a pioneer. Just a follower of a group less followed.

Virginia Woolf's essay "The Angel in the House" is her attempt to let society know that women still have "many ghosts to fight, many prejudices to overcome." (185) Virginia is trying to relay the message that there is an old image of women still present today that needs to be shaken. In her field of literature, women are still overlooked in favor of men. "My profession is literature; and in that profession there are fewer experiences for women than in any other..." (186) This shows that society today is still in favor of men, thinking they can do the better job. Even though today there is the declaration that men and women have equal rights, there are many that don't feel that way still. "The obstacles against her are still immensely powerful-and yet they are very difficult to define." (189) This showed that although it's not made clear of what is standing in the way of women, there's still something definitely there.

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