For humans, fitting in with the world around us is a necessity. We slowly change ourselves to become more similar to the people we spend the most time with or that have power over us. Sometimes this change is conscious, but many times is happens without us noticing until someone or something comes along and points out how different we are. The way human minds work makes us need other people in our lives; to keep those people around, we must have common beliefs or interests. We tend to change ourselves or attempt to change others until they are more like us. In Flower Garden, by Shirley Jackson, the character of young Mrs. Winning married into the Winning family 11 years prior to the time covered in the story. In those 11 years, she has become …show more content…
Winning to conform stems from the traditions of the Wining family that are upheld but her mother in law, the older Mrs. Winning. She has been conditioned for the last 11 years to think and act like a Winning woman. Shirley Jackson mentions young Mrs. Winning’s loss of personal identity in the first paragraph, in the first sentence even. She says that the two women, the two Mrs. Winnings, have started to look alike even though the younger one married into the family. Older Mrs. Winning starts to change her daughter in law by correct or reprimanding her emotions toward the weather. “I get so tired of the cold,” young Mrs. Winning says, commenting on the seemingly endless winter. The elder tells her that it has, “Got to be cold some of the time”. This small correction is what starts young Mrs. Winning’s loss of individualism. Eventually she starts to see herself as more of a laborer than a person that the family actually cares about. In keeping with family tradition, young Mrs. Winning names her son Howard, like his father, and his father before him. While getting lunch ready with her mother in law, Mrs. Winning though to herself that “she had at least given them another Howard with the Winning eyes and mouth, in exchange for her food and her bed.” She has forgotten the value of her own …show more content…
There is a reason a person believes one thing over another, or acts one way instead of the other and we must search for that reason and remind ourselves why we feel that way and why changing our minds simply to make someone else’s life a little easier or to make a new friend is not a smart decision. We are forced, either by ourselves or by peer pressure, to conform so that we don’t stand out from the rest of the group. In the story, this is shown through the racial challenge. No one in town would hire Mr. Jones because spending that much time with a black man was a deviation from the norms of the town. We need to be more confident in ourselves and learn to stand up for what we believe in. Mrs. MacLane and Davey are great examples not giving in to peer pressure. They do not see race as a barrier or a reason to isolate someone; it has no effect on them that the town wants her to be “one of the nice people again”. It is hard to put yourself out there with no one to back you up. Deviating from the group takes guts, but if we were no longer afraid to voice our real opinions, everything could be different. Imagine what would have happened the Nazis had told Hitler that what he was doing was terrible and wrong. If those that felt that what was happening was wrong had rallied together, the mass slaughter of 10 million people could have been avoided. If
The debate over individualism and collectivism has been the fundamental conflict both in political philosophy and in ethics. Philosophers such as Ayn Rand think that human beings are fundamentally individuals, and that everyone exists for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. But it is very rare for one to live completely alone by himself. The entire human race would not be able to evolve and reproduce, if humans were individualistic in nature, and each individual needs some form of support from group to enhance its own odds of surviving. Humans naturally are in need of each other to survive, to reproduce, and to protect their offspring. Such needs are innately built into every human being, and
Driving is a privilege Americans have been afforded since the invention of the automobile in the late 1800’s. Yet with great power comes great responsibility. One of the responsibilities associated with being able to drive several tons of metal at high speeds is the responsibility of doing so without any distractions or impairments. Choosing to drive drunk puts not only the driver in danger, but also everyone else in the car and on the road. Currently, the average drunk driver will drive eighty times before getting caught by the police (1). On average, one third of all people will be involved in a drunk driving accident during the course of their lifetimes (7). Whereas driving drunk once can be seen as a mistake and a one-time lapse in judgment, choosing to recklessly ignore the law and the safety of others is a serious offense against society. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that one in three persons arrested for drunk driving are repeat offenders (2).
Traditions are like a two-edged sword. They can be very powerful and helpful or they can be very hurtful and painful. Traditions gain momentum with each passing year, and in many cases they become difficult or impossible to stop. In “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson uses situation irony, suspense, and dialogue to show that some groups of people have traditions they do not want to end, even if there is no reason for the tradition.
Shirley Jackson’s stories often had a woman as the central character who was in search of a more important life other than the conventional wife and mother. These characters however were often chastised for their refusal to conform to a woman’s traditional way of life. Much like her characters, throughout Shirley Jackson’s life, she also rejected the idea of fitting into society's perception of a woman's role.
No one can deny that driving drink has caused traffic deaths and injuries. Drunk driving is one of the most frequently committed crimes in the United States, killing someone approximately every 48 minutes. Drunk driving is “A time when humans willingly enter cages of glass and steel that move in such great numbers at such terrific speed, that subtle turn of the steering wheel can easily result in death” (Thomas). What possesses a person to get ...
Coming from a mixed background causes great confusion on what tradition to follow. If a person
Tradition is a central theme in Shirley Jackon's short story The Lottery. Images such as the black box and characters such as Old Man Warner, Mrs. Adams, and Mrs. Hutchinson display to the reader not only the tenacity with which the townspeople cling to the tradition of the lottery, but also the wavering support of it by others. In just a few pages, Jackson manages to examine the sometimes long forgotten purpose of rituals, as well as the inevitable questioning of the necessity for such customs.
PURPOSE: To persuade my audience NOT to drink and drive Every person is accountable for his or her own “right to drink”. Failure to treat this or any “right” responsibly has consequences. The person’s “right” can and should be taken away when the failure to act responsibly endangers others.
“He who loses individuality, loses all” (Good Reads, 2012). This quote said by Mahatma Gandhi, one of the most recognized leaders of the 19th century, can easily be used to acknowledge the importance of a society possessing unique individualistic traits and characteristics as individuality is the fuel needed to run a society. In a world, where even a mere speck of individuality is not present, that society is likely to shatter into utter destruction. Moreover, individuals should possess the ability to embrace their own uniqueness through which they will have the ability to understand distinctive phrases such as that said by William Channing, “no one should part with their individuality and become that of another”. The concept of individuality being vital to society is explored within Caitlin Tom’s essay Individuality vs. Fitting in, the American novel Little Women by Louisa Alcott, and the romantic yet empowering dramatic film Jane Eyre. The concept presented in these three works portrays how it the essence of individuality is a fundamental component for society as it aids with the recognition of societal barriers, allows the ability to empower change, and permits appreciation of the invoked change.
Attempt to change can lead to consequences. In “The Chrysanthemums” there is this woman named Eliza Allen that lives with her husband on a ranch in the time period of the great depression. During that time hard work is important in order to live a good life. Eliza is mostly seen working on the fields and in her garden with her chrysanthemums. The chrysanthemums are like Eliza’s children. She takes such precise care in them that “No aphids were there, no sowbugs or sails or cutworms. Her terrier fingers destroyed such pests before they could get started” (96). Her husband doesn’t notice her passion and love for them stating
The Flowers By Alice Walker Written in the 1970's The Flowers is set in the deep south of America and is about Myop, a small 10-year old African American girl who explores the grounds in which she lives. Walker explores how Myop reacts in different situations. She writes from a third person perspective of Myop's exploration. In the first two paragraph Walker clearly emphasises Myop's purity and young innocence.
...e decides to have a drink. It is better to abstain from it rather than try it. I feel this is the best approach. Alcohol in moderation is the next best step in being responsible.
Innocence is something always expected to be lost sooner or later in life, an inevitable event that comes of growing up and realizing the world for what it truly is. Alice Walker’s “The Flowers” portrays an event in which a ten year old girl’s loss of innocence after unveiling a relatively shocking towards the end of the story. Set in post-Civil War America, the literary piece holds very particular fragments of imagery and symbolism that describe the ultimate maturing of Myop, the young female protagonist of the story. In “The Flowers” by Alice Walker, the literary elements of imagery, symbolism, and setting “The Flowers” help to set up a reasonably surprising unveiling of the gruesome ending, as well as to convey the theme of how innocence disappears as a result of facing the harsh reality of this world.
Society has changed a lot in the last couple of decades, though, at the time set in the play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, the stereotype was very much alive. Even today echoes of this archaic family model still exist. Being normal, and adapting to society, can often lead a person to feel a sense of belonging in the short term. However, the penalty for conforming is that the individual can be lost. Giving up your personal goals, in the pursuit of those passed down from your family can lead to a lifetime of regrets. Basing decisions on societal norms can also have devastating consequences, leading the individual to become lost in a mundane life that is not of their choosing. Martha and George created a fictional son for their private needs to take away from the failure they felt as married individuals by not being able to conceive a child. Nick and Honey started their marriage to fill their roles as future parents in the expected family dynamic. Confronting each couple is a personal failure resulting in an unrealized future. Neither couple has a desire to admit their shortcomings for fear of judgment from the other couple. The play, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? displays how the desire to be normal and successful, in the eyes of our peers, impacts our life
One cannot escape change it’s inevitable. Change happens all the time; it is a part life. Yet, even though we adjust all the time, we never realized how much our own family modified us. They alter us more than we do ourselves. They change everything in their path; even how we assess the society that surrounds us. Take Anne Frank’s family, Otto, Edith, and Margo Frank, for instance. They were of the Jewish religion, and When Adolf Hitler came into power they were treated harshly, and were abrasively discriminated along with other Jews and undesirables. Although all of the things that were happening around them the Frank family didn’t loath their society, actually all they felt was dismay because they sensed that all this was...