In Octavia Butler’s Kindred, a main topic explored is innate human nature. throughout the book the personalities of characters is explained by their upbringing,however; the chemicals responsible for all emotion are present in all people’s brains, thus it can be inferred that all people innately posses the potential to exert these emotions. As seen in main characters such as Dana and Rufus, it is also seen in the many secondary characters such as Alice and Tom Weylin. A person's probability to exert these emotions is dependent on the person's environment.
Dana’s environment in 1976 affects her journey the 1800’s. As Dana in 1976, lives in a much more progressive society and how sharply it contrasts the time period she travels to, the distinctions are clear. “I could recall walking along the narrow dirt road that ran past the Weylin house and seeing the house, shadowy in twilight, boxy and familiar . . . I could recall feeling relief at seeing the house, feeling that I had come home. And having to stop and correct myself, remind myself that I was in an alien, dangerous place.”(190). Dana faces the harsh reality of the era, taking its toll on her mental well being, as she almost mistakes the Weylin house for her home. Through each successive journey home, Dana experiences greater
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this is seen in the book when the slave children sell each other as a game “The little girl turned to frown at him.’I’m worth more than two hundred dollars,Sammy!’”(99), even these young children possess the potential to be racist;emotions are awakened through a person's environment. Another example can be pulled from the end of the book, when Dana finds herself in a violent situation, her brain reacted by activating the fight or flight response, this effect is purely innate, it cannot be learned nor forgotten, the chemical Adrenaline released influenced Dana’s decisions and her overall choice, all as a result of her
In the story, Kindred, an African American woman named Dana is transported back in time to save her uncle from death. However, Dana faces a moral dilemmas that lead her to change the lives of the people around her. Dana must choose to let Rufus die and stop the abusive acts he commits, or to let Rufus live in order to protect the other people who live on the farm. If Dana chooses to live, the abuse towards her and Alice will continue. The abusive acts Rufus does has both a physical and social effect on Alice and Dana. Because Rufus gets abusive if Alice refuses to have sex with him, she has no choice but to continue along. Also, Dana will receive punishment because she refuses to cater to Rufus’ wishes. But if Dana lets Rufus live, the families,
Olivia Butler was an American non-fiction writer. She wrote the novel Kindred in the year of 1979. Kindred is defined as a family or a spirit of our relatives. The novel was breaking down into six section regarding the time of each scene. The six sections of the book are the river, the fire, the fall, the fight, the storm, and the rope. This novel is about knowing the character’s ancestors by transporting into two different times. The narrator in this novel is Dana, she has the ability to go back to the past. The story of Dana starts in the year of 1976 and she is able to go back in the year of 1815. In this story, Dana is a writer and she is able to go back in the past because of she in control of his ancestor Rufus Weylin. Since Dana is black, she is transporting to an environment that unwelcoming regarding her physical appearance.
Have you ever questioned someone’s behavior and wonder what makes them behave the way they do? “Lord of the Flies,” by William Golding introduces a group of boys stranded on an island with no adult supervision which means no rules or authority. The group of boys face many conflicts and complications due to the situation they are in. Their behavior is to blame due to the environment and the situation they are in, however many believe that their behavior comes from internal “genetics” not external the “environment”. A person’s behavior can be influenced by their inner self which comes from our heredity, but in most cases I believe that behavior is influenced by the situation and the environment that is faced.
Authors' Conceptions of Human Nature. Philosophers, politicians, and writers throughout the western world. across all of our written history have discovered the importance of knowing human nature. Human nature is responsible for our definitions of abstract concepts that are surprisingly universal across the western world, like justice, equity, and law. Human nature must also be carefully studied in an effort to understand, obtain, or maintain power within society.
In the novel Dana is a writer, has moved into her new home with her husband, and she even taken college courses before. In Rufus time this would be wildly inappropriate and cause them both a lot of problems. During the 1970s school became widely integrated, which mean both blacks and whites people could attend school together. In Rufus time this could get people killed or severely punished. In his time, it is illegal for black slaves to receive and education. In the novel Dana is beaten for having a book in the cookhouse. Not only that, but people didn 't like the fact she was educated, not even the slaves; they believe she was trying to be white. As a matter of fact, Dana is not respected by Tom and Margaret Weylin, they don’t like the fact that she is smart then them. For instance, when Rufus wants Dana to read to him, and his mother, Margaret tries to distract him and keep Dana from reading (Butler 103). In addition, Rufus told Dana the his parent are jealous of her because she could read better than them. Dana then considers the fact that in their time, girls weren’t always allowed to attend school for a long period of time, which explain why Margaret Weylin is not that educated. In addition to that, in the 1800s, girls weren’t given many of the same opportunity as men. Most girls spend less time in school because they believe they would become wives someday and need to care for the house. The literacy rates in 1851 were still only 55% compared to nearly 70% for
From being shocked by electrical apparatuses to hearing loud sirens and bells, they learn subconsciously what to like and dislike. Children learn to fear pleasures that have no function in a tightly planned world (Watts 77). This wipes out any capabilities of having your own thoughts of your own likes and dislikes. Specific personalities and individuality are lost. Incapable of expressing opinion or judgement (Watts. 77).
A layman would define personality as an individual’s characteristics in terms of how they think and behave. Many theorists, however, interprets personality differently resulting in various personality theories. Personality is determined by traits which are behaviours displayed by a person in most given situations. How a person reacts to common circumstances may also be used to foresee future behaviours. Traits are then categorized into types that allow easier comparisons to be made between each individual’s attributes. The focus of this paper would be on the biological aspects of personality whereby traits are thought to be inheritable through genetics and associated with the central nervous system. Behavioural genetics are research that makes use of results from studies done on family, twins and adoptions. The findings of how both genes and environment influences personality from the studies will be discussed. Some researchers found possible issues with the representativeness of such studies. The outline of Eysenck’s biological model of personality and arousal, Gray’s BAS/BIS theory and Cloninger’s biological model of personality will further explain the biological effect on personality.
The Holocaust is a traumatic history. About six millions of Jews got killed during this period of time. Holocaust is a history of anti-Semitism in Europe, anti-Semitism gained their strength after World War One, Germany had lost the war, so the German people blame the Jews for losing the war, and the Jews became the scapegoat. So Anne Frank is one of those Jews who got discriminate during the Holocaust. She went to hiding with her family, and the diary she wrote during her hiding time remained after she got killed in the camp. Her diary was published after then, and in her diary she had state it “Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart.” I totally agree with her in this statement.
was all right, so that he can accept it and move on. The narrator also
Nurture is constituted by the influence of millions of complex environmental factors that form a child's character. Advocators of nature do not believe that character is predetermined by genes, but formed over time. Although often separated, nature and nurture work together in human development. The human conscience is neither innate from birth or entirely shaped through experience, instead, genetics and environmental influences combine to form human behavior, character, and personality traits that constantly change and develop throughout life. The debate on nature versus nurture has existed for thousands of years.
Plutchik, Robert (2002), Emotions and Life: Perspectives from Psychology, Biology, and Evolution, Washington, DC: American Psychological Association
...t functions in our everyday life and relationships. Our culture is a good determinant of how we may act and show our feelings around people. The social conventions in our culture also serves as a guide as to what is supposed to be proper behavior when we are playing our social roles in the society we live in. There are times when people would choose to present artificial emotions because of the anxious situations that they are dealing with, hence refusing to disclose their feelings to others. A person’s personality also has huge influence on how they understand and convey expressions; just as our personality shapes our emotions, in turn our emotions also affect our personality. The people that we often socialize with can influence our feelings as we do the same with them. As has been noted, these are all the factors that influence the expression of our emotions.
“Some emotional experience is an interpretation and not merely given by our physiological state” (Hutchison, 2015, p.127). Dan shows that his personality is biased against sadness, which could be caused by something that has happened in his earlier years. Hutchison (2015) states, “Dan interprets sadness as a way to regain energy and to reevaluate his needs, which also signals other to provide Dan with support” (p.129). However, with the cultural difference many did not know what Dan’s interpretation of sadness was because his fellow classmates have a different meaning of sadness. So, physiological theory shows within different cultures, each emotion are organized around many different affective
The purpose of this essay will be to discuss whether human nature is good, or evil, or both good and evil, or neither good nor evil. To facilitate the following discussion, human nature here would be defined as the distinguishing characteristics we born with, that we tend to have naturally without the influence of external factors. The definition agrees to Xunzi’s, that nature is what is given by Heaven: one cannot learn it; one cannot acquire it by effort. This essay will explain that the deepest essence of human nature is self-preservation and reproduction, which cannot be truly classified into good or evil. It is followed by how we are diverged to behave goodly or badly, argument against the “good nature theory” and different between self-preservation with greed and aggression.
The Biological approach to personality places emphasis on the genetic influences related to the development of an individual’s personality. Some may believe that children and their parents can have very similar personalities, for example a young boy having his father’s anger (Stelmack, 1990). Though this approach has often been questioned by psychologists, it is not disregarded all together. Some believe that genetics do have a role in an individual’s personality development; however environments, as well as personal experiences all work in forming personality.