Consequences Of Social Norms In The Movie Witness

Social norms are defined as unspoken rules, helping people to shape both their behaviors and attitudes, and to distinguish who are in the same group while who are the outsiders. People often stress the importance of engaging in norms and also the risks of breaking them, yet, most of people are not aware of the existing social norms very consciously until they realize that the social norms are violated. The movie Witness, directed by Peter Weir, the one illustrating a story about a modern American policeman and an Amish family, shows the conflict between modernity and the culture of Amish, as well as different consequences after the Amish’s norms are broke by the modern American. That is, the consequences may vary; some people get peer pressures from the group after breaking the norms, and some can get expel from the group if they have gone too far. Therefore, the risks of social norm violations are that one may harm oneself, or even get others in trouble.

Mostly people get peer pressures from the group after they violate social norms. Or before one cross the line and things getting worse, others from the same group usually persuade one and tell him what they are supposed to follow or believe, and what they should do, trying to avoid worse consequences. In the movie Witness, the grandfather Eli Lapp tries to explain to Samuel Lapp what they Amish believe, “This gun of the hand is for the taking of human life. We believe it is wrong to take a life. That is only for God... there's never only one way.” And after Samuel shows his will to only kill the bad man, Eli Lapp still insists his faith, “What you take into your hands, you take into your heart”, which means one should always follow his own belief, rather than repeat the mistake...

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...gly”; one expelled student joked about her will to “kill” ugly people, and then discussed with her friends about this ugly speech in later. Although these three students said they were not intentionally mean that, as they used the joking terms such as “lol”, still, after a few weeks, by claiming these three girls violated school policy against bullying and intimidation, school eventually decided to expel them. Hence, sometimes people can even harm others, and get others in trouble due to the social norm violations.

Social norms are unwritten rules that almost everyone dutifully follows. Each group has its own boundaries, which if crossed, depending on the severity, they may seem to be attacks or even worse; sometimes the norm violations result only in peer pressure within the group, but sometimes they leave severe consequences like expulsion and collateral damage.