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Mass media influence people's behavior
Mass media influence people's behavior
Mass media influence people's behavior
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Manchild in the Promise land takes place in Harlem, a predominantly African-American neighborhood in New York City, New York. During the 1940’s and 1950’s, the time period where this book takes place, this book presents what it was like to grow up in the city. Unfortunately for many urban children during this time period, they slipped into violence, drugs, and gangs. Why was this urban generation of African-American’s destined with this fate? It was due to the peer pressure, lack of support from the community, parental guidance, and racism that led to many of them turning to violence. Claude Brown writes precisely of these detrimental effects as he writes an autobiography about his experience growing up in Harlem. In the book, Sonny (Claude’s kid nickname) joins a gang called the “buccaneers” when he is eleven. His friends run the streets stealing, skipping school, and rebelling against their parents. It all seems like harmless fun to Sonny until he is arrested and sent to the Wiltwyck boy’s home, a reform school. When Sonny describes how much he wanted to fit in and be like his friends, he represents what every child is like in their tweens. The influence peers have on an individual during the age of eleven to fifteen …show more content…
Claude might have been too young to fully understand why sometimes he was treated differently in his childhood, but as he grew older he realized that other people treated him differently. One of his more significant moments is when he meets Judy, a young Jewish girl, which he falls in love with. He describes her as “the best thing that ever happened to me.” (P.573*) Unfortunately when Judy’s parents find out Claude is African-American; they send her away to Connecticut. Claude at first doesn’t understand why she was sent away but his friend Chet lightly explains to him that her parents found out Claude was African-American and because of his color, Judy was sent
Turk, a boyhood friend who in the open-ing pages of the book is shown pleading with Claude not to tell the police that he was with him during the shooting, became a professional boxer and a model for those who want to escape the street life. Danny Rogers, the son of the minister for whom Sonny feigns conversion, managed to defeat his long drug addiction and is last viewed as a loving father to his children. On the other hand, Claude’s younger brother, Pimp, was one of Harlem’s victims. Abused by his father, he became a junkie and finally was jailed for armed robbery. A ray of hope exists, however, as Pimp is reported to be putting his life together and to have obtained his high-school diploma in prison. There was no hope for friends such as Butch and Tony, who died from overdoses, or for Sugar, Brown’s former girlfriend, whom he found prostituting herself to pay for
Sonny was brought up in this very Harlem and learned how to steal and fight his way through life. However, life fought him back at every opportunity. “By the time I was nine years old, I had been hit by a bus, thrown into the Harlem River (intentionally), hit by a car, severely beaten by a chain. And I had set the house afire” (Brown 12). Sonny’s childhood was filled with so much mayhem that it would be ridiculous for anyone to expect his turnaround into a functional adult. Nevertheless, he accomplished just that . He did it by learning from not only his mistakes, but from others as well. Seeing how everyone he knew was going to prison, dying, or becoming a junkie, Sonny decided that he wanted a better life than what the streets of Harlem could offer. Sonny grew beyond his environment until he finally stopped doing drugs, he got a job, and went to college. He overcame the low expectations of him and ended up being better than what anyone had expected. Although, his personal growth was not a quick one, it was slow, painful and has relevance throughout the entire
The book then shows different ways of how manhood has always played a part in black freedom struggles. Estes starts to explore the participation of black men in World War II, and where the beginning of the civil rights movement began. The World War II used a language of masculinity to increase different ranks of the military, “the notion that are men are more powerful than women, that they should have control over their own lives and the authority over others” (page 7). They were posters that said, “Man the guns”, or “What did you do during the war daddy?” these posters were used to say that man is a protector of the home. World War II also started man power shortages which opened up new advantages for women and minorities, there was less white men. Estes sees this challenge as a white man supremacy, which surfaced around the 1950’s and...
While not true for everyone, people are a product of their environment. The surroundings that a person is exposed to, may have a direct influence on the decisions they make in life. Even if someone is smart and has great aspirations, the environment they are brought up in may be holding them back. People who make terrible choices and then are shocked by the consequences are simply coming from a context in which those weren't as bad a choices as they turned out to be. This is the case for Sonny of James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues.” Although Sonny was an aspiring musician, the surroundings of Harlem would provide opportunities to make poor decisions that may not have been presented to him had he been in a different environment. For this reason,
The historical context of the book is the story took place in the late 80’s-early 90’s in the streets of Chicago. At this era of time, it had been about 20-30 years after segregation was outlawed, but the effects of years of racism and segregation could be shown in the “hoods” of cities. The author utilizes the two boys’ stories to show what the
Inner-city life is filled with glimmers of hope. The children had hopes of leaving the dreadful streets of the ghetto and moving into an innovative and improved place. There are times when Lafayette states, ...
As it feels important for many tweens to be accepted by his or her peers, it makes a tween susceptible to such influence. One of the examples of peer pressure is the way media portraits tweens. Modern television shows demonstrate tweens wearing makeup, concentrating on fashion, dating, and having kids. As the result tweens start wearing makeup, worrying about what they wear, and take an interest in the opposite sex at a young age in order to be more like their peers on television. Tweens watch shows that follow the lives of teen moms and dads, and they decide that it is reputable to resemble them. Another example of peer pressure is its influence on tweens that have the need to fit in due to their own insecurities. They take up smoking, drinking, doing drugs, stealing, fighting, missing school, and having sex in order to feel a part of their peer group. They would engage in bullying others online or in person in order to hide their own insecurities from their peers. Whenever tweens are influenced by peer pressure, their focus is deferred from studying onto taking action to fit in with their
This single short quote from the first section of Lillian Smith’s Killers of the Dream is a perfect summation of the changing world many Southerners were facing as they approached the 20th Century. Gone were the days of plantation homes, housewives overseeing 50 black slaves, and many of the ideals that this lifestyle carried with it. As the Civil War ended and Reconstruction worked its way through the South, much was uprooted. This change was hard for this “landed aristocracy.” However, it was equally hard on the children.
Several passages found throughout "Sonny's Blues" indicate that as a whole, the neighborhood of Harlem is in the turmoil of a battle between good and evil. The narrator describes Sonny's close encounters with the evil manifested in drugs and crime, as well as his assertive attempts at distancing himself from the darker side. The streets and communities of Harlem are described as being a harsh environment which claims the lives of many who have struggled against the constant enticement of emotional escape through drugs, and financial escape through crime. Sonny's parents, just like the others in Harlem, have attempted to distance their children from the dark sides of their community, but inevitably, they are all aware that one day each child will face a decisionb for the first time. Each child will eventually join the ranks of all the other members of society fighting a war against evil at the personal level so cleanly brought to life by James Baldwin. Amongst all the chaos, the reader is introduced to Sonny's special secret weapon against the pressures of life: Jazz. Baldwin presents jazz as being a two-edged sword capable of expressing emotions like no other method, but also a presenting grave danger to each individual who bears it. Throughout the the story, the reader follows Sonny's past and present skirmishes with evil, his triumphs, and his defeats. By using metaphorical factors such as drugs and jazz in a war-symbolizing setting, Baldwin has put the focus of good and evil to work at the heart of "Sonny's Blues."
“Sonny’s Blues” revolves around the narrator as he learns who his drug-hooked, piano-playing baby brother, Sonny, really is. The author, James Baldwin, paints views on racism, misery and art and suffering in this story. His written canvas portrays a dark and continual scene pertaining to each topic. As the story unfolds, similarities in each generation can be observed. The two African American brothers share a life similar to that of their father and his brother. The father’s brother had a thirst for music, and they both travelled the treacherous road of night clubs, drinking and partying before his brother was hit and killed by a car full of white boys. Plagued, the father carried this pain of the loss of his brother and bitterness towards the whites to his grave. “Till the day he died he weren’t sure but that every white man he saw was the man that killed his brother.”(346) Watching the same problems transcend onto the narrator’s baby brother, Sonny, the reader feels his despair when he tries to relate the same scenarios his father had, to his brother. “All that hatred down there”, he said “all that hatred and misery and love. It’s a wonder it doesn’t blow the avenue apart.”(355) He’s trying to relate to his brother that even though some try to cover their misery with doing what others deem as “right,” others just cover it with a different mask. “But nobody just takes it.” Sonny cried, “That’s what I’m telling you! Everybody tries not to. You’re just hung up on the way some people try—it’s not your way!”(355) The narrator had dealt with his own miseries of knowing his father’s plight, his Brother Sonny’s imprisonment and the loss of his own child. Sonny tried to give an understanding of what music was for him throughout thei...
November 12, 1934, Charles Milles Maddox is born to 15 year old Kathleen Maddox who had been living with various partners in hotel rooms when Charles was born. Kathleen was an alcoholic and when Charles was 4, she had earned a five-year jail term for robbery. While his mother was in jail, Charles had been taken in by his aunt and uncle in McMechen, West Virginia. He had been placed in schools and boys homes. By age nine, Charles had already started stealing and later on added burglary and auto theft to his record. There was a consistency to the habit of stealing and it became easier. As he began to steal more he gained a sense of comfort, stability. He was caught stealing and sent to reform school and then again when he was twelve and was sent to Gibault School for Boys in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1947. He was not there long and had ran away trying to return to his mother who didn’t want him. He then tried to live on his own, supporting himself entirely off of stealing and burglary until he was caught. The court had arranged for him to be sent off to Father Flanagan’s Boys Town. (another reform school) Three days after he was admitted to Boys Town, thirteen-year-old Charlie and another boy committed two armed robberies. Charles was later moved to the Indiana School for Boys for three years. His teachers described him as having trust in no one and “did good work only for those whom he figured he could obtain something.” In 1951, Charles and two of his friends had run away and started heading for California, supporting himself ...
“Fitting in” is a concept that is seen a lot in adolescence. Teenagers will do pretty much anything at times to have friends or appear to be “cool.” That is exactly what happens to Tracy in this film. As the film begins, Tracy is a good, simple girl, and her pureness all changes when she befriends the most popular girl in school, Evie Zamora. Evie is very rebellious. She does not have a strong authority figure in her life (Levy-Hinte, London, & Hardwicke, 2003). The sweet, innocent young Tracy is soon to be completely transformed. Evie is vividly a bad influence on Tracy from the beginning, as seen when she influences Tracy to steal something the first time they hang out together (Levy-Hinte, et al., 2003). Stealing is illegal and considered a minor crime and turns Tracy into a delinquent (Berk, 2011). Tracy’s identity development is heavily influenced by her new friendship with Evie from that moment on. Evie is so popular, but she makes very poor choices and Tracy follows her lead because she wants ...
Though the stories may seem “out of place” at first transitioning to the present and past, the style shows how the narrator has learned from his experiences. When the narrator mentions the founder of his school, Mr. Norton, a wealthy and intelligent man, the author praises him as if he were a god. He explains how Mr. Norton’s opening the school affected the entire Negro race in a positive way. Giving them opportunities to better themselves and show they are just as capable as any other.
In the short story “The Man Who Was Almost a Man,” Richard Wright describes how a seventeen-year-old African American boy named Dave struggles to become a man. Dave desires to be viewed as an adult, but is perceived as a boy by his family and community. He foolishly believes that he can prove he is a powerful and mature adult by owning a gun, and as a result, purchases one. However, the route Dave takes to prove he is a man reinforces everyone’s belief that he is still an adolescent. Many critics regard this piece of literature as a representation of the confinement that racial oppression created for African Americans during this time. Through this story, Wright is arguing his primary claim that the oppression Dave and other African Americans
In There are No Children Here, by Alex Kotlowitz, the way of life in Chicago's Henry Horner projects has a profound effect on all the residents who live there. The children become desensitized by the constant violence that they are forced to witness every day. Children are forced to walk home from school through the urban war zone of these housing projects. It is not unusual for the children to run home from school to avoid becoming casualties of the ongoing battle between rival gangs. The violence has affected Lafeyette and Pharaoh as much as anyone in the projects.