Tragedy and the Common Man by Arthur Miller

You are in the gym. You look around, watching the others around you as they work. A personal trainer is standing, yelling at her patron to “work harder”, “you only have one left”, “you can do it!” The person on the bench is working hard, trying his best to complete his task. Now you turn your head to the left and watch a group of men bench pressing. They are listening to loud music, yelling at each other to work harder. One of these men is starting to look sick, sweating and huffing loudly, clearly overworking. He is stressing his body, trying to keep up with his buddies, not wanting to look weaker. “Peer pressure and social norms are powerful influences on behaviour, and they are classic excuses” (Lansley).

We often find that our greatest foes can be those around us, our peers. They offer one of the greatest influences towards our actions, peer pressure. Often times, we bend our wills and follow others to blend in with those around us. They can lead us on rollercoasters of new experiences, making us do things we never would have done before. Sometimes these influences can be a bad thing, but often, great things can come from peer pressure. Every human is essentially the same when you look deep into their core. We all share the same emotions, feelings and similar types of thoughts. By experiencing these emotions, one can learn to manipulate them in others. We learn that if this makes me motivated or mad, maybe it will affect them too.

Everything we do can hold an impact to someone one way or another. Sometimes this happens unconsciously, like smiling at someone and making them happy. Other times we can use this influence on purpose to change people’s minds or to anger them. We take what we know about our own core and apply it to...

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... we meet, the bigger influence they each carry.

The way that we influence those around us can be both positive and negative, just like at the gym. The personal trainer is using a positive influence by having her patron work his hardest. On the other hand, the men hold a negative influence as they force their buddy to overwork himself to keep up with the rest of them. We hold a large impact on other’s lives. Positive or negative, you choose how you will influence the world around you.

Works Cited

Orwell, George. Animal Farm. 1946. New York: Signet, 1996. Print.

Lansley, Andrew. "Public Health: No Excuses, No Nannying." The Guardian. Guardian News, 27 Aug. 2008. Web. 1 Nov. 2013.

Miller, Arthur. “Tragedy and the Common Man.” Books.The New York Times on the Web. 27 Feb. 1949. Web. 18 Oct. 2013.

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. New York: Bantam Books, 1991. Print.