Rough Draft
Power is the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events. But where does real power actually thrive from? According to many websites, articles, and books, power is fueled from your position is society. How high up you are, what job you have, what is your income. Things that make you successful are large contributing factors to your amount of power. Based on the books, A Doll’s House, Things Fall Apart, and Game of Thrones, the higher social status/class you are, the more power you can obtain.
In the book, Game of Thrones, there are many examples of power, and how it’s related to social class. In this series, all of the high lords are wealthy landowners. They own vast plains and farms and are the master to many servants and maids. They have lots of money from their farms and collect taxes from within their borders. This is a great example of how power is related to social class because all of these things that makes them a lord, like owning land, also contributes to social class. According to this book, social class directly correlates with power.
In the story, Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo has a lot of power in his society. He is wealthy because of hard work; he owns lots of yams and is a very respected individual. Once again, his social status is high, and so is his level of power. People in his village listen to him and will do what he says. That is basically the definition of power. He can influence the ways of others and the way things will play out. None of that would be possible for Okonkwo if he was poor. People wouldn’t respect or follow him if he owned no land and was low in society. A high social status is necessary to hold power.
Another book that holds many good...
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...a almost blows it for him, it’s no wonder he becomes very upset. He’s worked very hard to get where he is in society. “How painful and humiliating it would be for Torvald, with his manly independence, to know that he owed me anything!” (Ibsen 567). This quote expresses how People would not respect Torvald if they Knew his success was partially from his wife. Back in that age he would be ruined when it wasn’t socially acceptable.
Over all you can tell that a high social class is required to hold power. If the people you intend to rule don’t respect or follow you, they will not let you rule. It’d be kinda like if our president worked at a fast food restaurant before becoming president. Would you want to be governed by him? Of Course not; he has no leadership skills and no one would respect him. That is solid proof that you need to be popular and liked to hold power.
Social ranking and the hierarchy certainly proved to have a large presence among the people of that time. The frailty of the lower class, the greed of Sir Philip, the importance of her majesty the Queen, all these points do a great job in supporting the strength and affect the hierarchy had on its the people. Although the hierarchy and social ranking did have some negative influence on the people, it did a good job in keeping people in line. Despite the fact there were some major flaws with the hierarchy system back then, like great differences in power between rankings and corruption, it surely did its job of protecting the people from even bigger problems that could have occurred.
Power is a difficult concept to define conclusively or definitively however, Bourdieu explains power to be a symbolic construct that is perpetuated through every day actions and behaviours of a society, that manipulate power relations to create, maintain and force the conforming of peoples to the given habitus of that society (Bourdieu, 1977). Power, is a force created through the
Okonkwo is “a man of action, a man of war” (7) and a member of high status in the Igbo village. He holds the prominent position of village clansman due to the fact that he had “shown incredible prowess in two intertribal wars” (5). Okonkwo’s hard work had made him a “wealthy farmer” (5) and a recognized individual amongst the nine villages of Umuofia and beyond. Okonkwo’s tragic flaw isn’t that he was afraid of work, but rather his fear of weakness and failure which stems from his father’s, Unoka, unproductive life and disgraceful death. “Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and weakness….It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father.” Okonkwo’s father was a lazy, carefree man whom had a reputation of being “poor and his wife and children had just barely enough to eat... they swore never to lend him any more money because he never paid back.” (5) Unoka had never taught Okonkwo what was right and wrong, and as a result Okonkwo had to interpret how to be a “good man”. Okonkwo’s self-interpretation leads him to conclude that a “good man” was someone who was the exact opposite of his father and therefore anything that his father did was weak and unnecessary.
According to the "Power and Leadership" essay written by Paula Braynion, "the first thing one encounters when trying to understand power is a difficulty in arriving at a concise definition, as there are many and varied definitions and perspectives seeking to explore and explain the concept." (Braynion, para 1) There are two main kinds of power to look at when figuring out how power and leadership relate. The first kind of power is formal power which is obtain by an individual from having a formal or privileged position in an organization's hierarchy, for example a VP or a CEO would have formal power over his or her employees. The second kind of power is known as informal power or influential power, this power is based on the ability to influence others rather than the ability to control rewards and punishment. Informal power is the result of peers and other employees choosing to follow an
“As a child who had dropped in from a parallel universe of purchased educational opportunity and order, I had no idea why such difference existed, nor of its consequences” (Ford 2012). Wealth and status play a major role in power and with power comes great opportunities. For example; a family that comes from a rural or remote area, will not have the same resources as one who lives in a more suburban area, where resources are in arms reach. Someone who lives in rural areas,
Okonkwo is one of the most powerful men in the Ibo tribe. In his tribe, he is both feared and honored. This is evident by this quote, "Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond... [He] brought honor to his tribe by throwing Amalinze the Cat..."(3) This suggests that in Okonkwo's society, power is attained by making a name for yourself in any way possible, even if that means fighting and wrestling to get your fame. Although honor is a good thing, when people have to fight to gain it, it becomes an object of less adoration. Okonkwo's "prosperity was visible in his household... his own hut stood behind the only gate in the red walls. Each of his three wives had her own hut... long stacks of yams stood out prosperously in [the barn]... [Okonkwo] offers prayers on the behalf of himself, his three wives, and eight children." (14) Okonkwo has also worked and tended to his crops in a very zealous fashion, and drives everyone around him to work as hard as he does. Because of this, he earns his place as one of Umuofia's most powerful men. In many cultures, a big family is a source of pride. Although Okonkwo is not always pleased by his children and wives, it also brings him a source of pride to have three wives and eight children. Large families mean that the head of the family is able to support all of them. Okonkwo's devotion to his crops and family gives to him the respect that any father and husband deserves, and in his culture, being able to fight and kill as well gives him even more influence and power.
With a dictionary definition (cited above), there is little end result between all definitions besides democracy. monarchy, oligarchy, aristocracy, tyranny all translate to few people or individual(s) ruling with power. Indeed, aristocracy and oligarchy are synonymous within this definition, as well as monarchy, aristocracy, and tyranny. The former being ruled by groups while the latter in definition are ruled by individuals. Not much difference.
Power has been defined as the psychological relations over another to get them to do what you want them to do. We are exposed to forms of power from the time of birth. Our parents exercise power over us to behave in a way they deem appropriate. In school, teachers use their power to help us learn. When we enter the work world the power of our boss motivates us to perform and desire to move up the corporate ladder so that we too can intimidate someone with power one day. In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness Kurtz had a power over the jungle and its people that was inexplicable.
...8) Torvald sees himself as a husband who is trying to protect his wife from everything.
At the beginning of the novel Okonkwo was a fairly wealthy and well-respected member of the Igbo society, but it had not always been that way for him. Okonkwo?s father, Unoka, had been a lazy man who would rather play his flute than take care of his crops. Unoka was said to be a charming man, and was able to borrow large amounts of money from his friends, but was never able to pay it back. As a result, Okonkwo has grown up very poor and ashamed of his lazy father. At one point in the book, Okonkwo remembers hearing one of his playmates calling his father an ?agbala,? which was the word for woman, but all described a man who had taken not titles (13). Okonkwo never forgets this, and actually develops a deep-seated fear that people will think that he is weak like his father. As I mentioned, Okonkwo became very well known, and his wealth and prestige rested solely on his own personal achievements. Okonkwo had received no inheritance from his poor father, no land and no money. As a young man, Okonkwo had been very successful wrestler, and as he grew older he became a well-known warrior. He was said to have brought home five human heads, which was a great achievement even for men who were much older that he was. At the beginning of the story, Okonkwo had obtained two titles, and had the respect of every man from all nine villages of Umuofia. Symbols of his wealth and prestige were his family and his compound. As I mentioned earlier, Okonwo had received no inheritance, and at the time of this story Okonkwo is still fairly young, and the fact that he had three wives, several children, and a very productive piece of land showed that Okonkwo was a very diligent worker. ?Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially...
Willer, R, Youngreen, R, Troyer, L & Lovaglia, M.J 2012, ‘How Do the Powerful Attain Status? The Roots of Legitimate Power Inequalities’, Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33, no. 5, pp. 355-367
Okonkwo's life was driven by his strong desire for status. In Okonkwo’s eyes, status was defined in two parts. The first part being how much respect and how many titles one has. Okonkwo goes to extreme odds to gain respect in his village, Umuofia. Okonkwo’s opinions on success relating to titles is displayed very early on. An example of this
There are several sources of power, some of them are authority, reward, expertise, and coercion.
When power becomes legitimate, it is then recognized as authority (Denhardt et al, 2001). Power becomes authority when it is accepted and even desired by society. As stated by the course study notes, “authority refers to a situation where a person (or group) has been formally granted a leadership position”. An individual has authority when everyday norms and regulations support the exercising of power by that individual. In an organizational setting, “authority is hierarchal and vested in positions” (Week 9 Study Notes), which are defined by “organizational charts, positions and rules” (Week 9 Study Notes). Generally, power in authority also involves the possibility of rewards such as promotions and good performance reviews.
Okonkwo is portrayed as a respected individual in many ways. He was a well known person through out the 9 villages and beyond. His successes were based wholly on his personal achievements. For example, he was a warrior and wrestler who gained respect through his athletics. Manliness was a characteristic that was greatly valued by the people of the village. Since Okonkwo was a wrestler and a warrior this showed that he was a fierce fear-free individual. And because he hadn't lost one fight or any battles this was more reason for the people of the village to love him. He was also respected because of his wealth. Okonkwo had three wives and m...