The desire to be accepted is one of the most pushing forces in human nature. It shows through from the time that we’re children to when we’re adults. The absolute want for acceptance is something that can lead to horrific acts. You can easily find examples of this though literature and historical events. In The “In” Group by Eve Shalen she speaks of the way her classmates treated her before they included her. She knew the public reading of another student’s diary wasn’t much different from something her peers would do to her, but yet she still joined in. Eve says “Often being accepted by others is more satisfying than being accepted by oneself, even though the satisfaction does not last.” Which almost perfectly shows my point, Eve knew …show more content…
Her story is one that terrifies me, 38 people heard her be attacked by an unknown man. Obviously there is no specific reason for this to have happened but a possible reasoning is they didn’t want to stray from the crowd. Everyone else seemed to be ignoring what they saw and anyone who knew it was wrong couldn’t bring themselves to speak up about what they knew was happening. In the same article they talk about Peggy Kirihara and Steward, a boy who she’d known for years. She talks about the regrets she has about not standing up for him. Every morning when he got on the bus he was tormented by a group of boys. Peggy knew what happened was wrong, so did all the other people on that bus. The boys that teased Steward weren’t unfamiliar or terrifying they all knew each other from years of school yet no one could bring themselves to say something. Again a sort of unspoken code that entailed silence among them. They couldn’t bring themselves to stand up for him, it’s easier to go with the group and sallow your values than to stand out and do what’s right. They were worried about judgement when you stand up someone might take your spot or worse they might ask you why you’ve been sitting for so
Much of the book has one startling development after another to the shock of the characters. One of the problems Cal was facing is that he doesn't have the power to help someone that's going through something. And Cal gets angry because "Going through high school, there was always a surprise about someone or something unexpected floating around in the social circles. I believe this is relatable to the average reader in that they no doubt have heard horrible rumors about their classmates and wondered who to talk to or how to solve the problem.
Sammy was obviously near the bottom of the class ladder, a place where he was extremely unhappy. His dead-end job at the grocery store, where lower class citizens are the prime patrons, was not a place he felt he belonged. He wanted to be a member of the family where the "father and the other men were standing around in ice-cream coats and bow ties and the women were in sandals picking up herring snacks on toothpicks off a big glass plate and they were all holding drinks the color of water with olives and sprigs of mint in them" (Updike 1028). Sammy realizes that Queenie comes from this sort of background, a very different one from his. When Queenie is being harassed by Lengel, Sammy sees that "she remembers her place, a place from which the crowd that runs the A & P must look pretty crummy" (Updike 1028). Queenie’s family was in the class that he envied, that he admired, that he wanted to become a part of.
In “ The Diary of Anne Frank,” Anne passively resists by writing in her diary because it helps her maintain hope. When Mr.Frank returns to Amsterdam after the war, he finds Anne’s diary and reads about how Anne still believes that “people are really good at heart,” despite everything that happened(352). Mr.Frank is amazed that Anne can find the
Sammy's immaturity and lack of experience were largely to blame for his wrestling with conflicting roles in his transition from child to adult. Updike's protagonist was at the same time an imaginative, observant young man who stood by his convictions, defending the girls to the end. Sammy was perhaps more intelligent and more gutsy than one would like to give him credit for, however. He knew what he did not want out of life. On that Thursday afternoon in the A & P, his name game caught up with him. Quitting his job was to be a turning point for him, a time for him to confront his own issues of sexuality, social class, stereotyping, responsibility, and, on a deeper leve, authority.
...society as a whole. When one is taunted or ostracized, the pain they feel is not only emotional but physical as well. The notion “sticks and stones” has been shown to be untrue. Sian Beilock, Ph.D. spoke about research which shows that, “intense social rejection really does share a lot in common with physical pain”. People that are abandoned, teased, rejected, taunted, or ridiculed by their peers may at first seek to do good things, as the monster in Frankenstein attempted. Should this not result in acceptance, these same seemingly weak people can strike out with devastating consequences. This leaves us to wonder, “How could we have stopped the tragedy “? As Shelly’s novel Frankenstein demonstrates, if society treats a person as an outcast simply because of their physical appearance, the end results can be catastrophic for the victims and for the perpetrators.
In many high schools, there is an unspoken social order amongst peer groups; teenagers are either included in the popular group or the unpopular group. These social standings are determined by the popular group whether they will accept certain people based on shared interests and values but mainly on appearance. For example, some groups may isolate a student who does not have clothing considered to be attractive enough. Teenagers belonging to the popular clique label individuals as outcasts who do not fit the clique’s standards of a perfect appearance. This repression can cause a build up of anger if an outcast seeks to be accepted into that popular group. Literature displays this social phenomenon of categorizing people too; author Mary Shelley
Sae-Young, Han, and Kim Yeon-Hwa. "Interpersonal Rejection Experiences And Shame As Predictors Of Susceptibility To Peer Pressure Among Korean Children." Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal 40.7 (2012): 1213-1231. Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.
Conformity means a change in one’s behavior due to the real or imagined influence of other people. As a teenager, the pressure to conform to the societal “norm” plays a major role in shaping one’s character. Whether this means doing what social groups want or expect you to do or changing who you are to fit in. During class, we watched films such as Mean Girls, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and The Breakfast Club which demonstrate how the pressure to conform into society can change who you are. In the movies we have seen, conformity was most common during high school.
The experience of being socially excluded leads to increases in aggressive behavior. Research has found that when people are excluded by others, they are more likely to behave aggressively, even to people who did not initially exclude them (Twenge, Baumeister, Tice, & Stucke, 2001).
He had been scared about being at the bottom of the food chain again. He pulled through well, but had a couple of social issues as this stage in his life progressed. For example, he had some experiences with peer pressure by his fellow classmates. It was important for him to go through this, because he needed to learn about standing up for what he believes in.
Psychologists have studied, in the recent years, about being accepted or being popular in the adolescent years of a person’s life. This research has led them to an interesting question: how does aggression affect popularity or being accepted socially by others? Aggression is an act that may be considered negative when used in most cases. Crick and Grotpeter in 1995 defined aggression “as behaviors to hurt or harm others” (Crick & Grotpeter, 1995, p.710). There are two main types of aggression: relational aggression and overt/psychical aggression. Relational Aggression is “harming others through purposeful manipulations and damage of their peer relationships,” while Overt aggression is “harming others through physical aggression, ...
... the guard from Wilkinson House for Boys, they felt nothing wrong about it. They just thought it was another day in their lifestyle. However, Shakes and Michael were two totally different stories. These two had grown up and conformed. They now followed the law instead of breaking it and were no longer deviant people. Michael had grown up to have a real job as a lawyer and Shakes had also gotten a legit job working for a newspaper. These two were able to conform and not be deviant because of the people they were involved with. Michael and Shakes were no longer surrounded by deviant people, but rather conformers. If they had committed crimes and broken the law then they would have felt out of place with the people they now associated with. The frequency and duration of time they did spend with deviant people was low enough to keep them from being deviant themselves.
Social influence/peer groups were one of the dominant themes in my observations, survey, and literature. Social influence looks at how individual thoughts, actions and feelings are influenced by social groups (Aronson, 2010).The desire to be accepted and liked by others can lead to dangerous behavior. College life can be an overwhelming experience for first time college students and or transfer students as they struggle to manage class time and social activities in an attempt to fit-in in the new environment that they may not be used to. Students can experience too much anxiety and drop out of college or fall behind classes. Working at the Cambell Student Union information Center, I observed a great deal of students falling into this trap of social influence and peer pressure. A female student tripped as she was going up the stairs to Spot Coffee but did not fall. What appears to be a group of guys who are not popular (guys who are not very well known), were seating where popular students normally seat. The group of guys started laughing at the girl and stopped. One guy kept laughing, but it was obvious he was forcing the laughter as to purposely attract attention. He started making jokes about the girl and carrying on the laughter so he would appear to be funny. Another example, which portrays peer influence, involves parties over the weekend. Multiple students stated they were falling behind in classes on the grounds of their friends wanted to go out the night before and they did not want to seem/appear “lame” so they tagged along. The influence of a group is intensified by the person’s desire to be an accepted member of the peer group. To achieve this desire he tries to conform in everyday to the patterns approved by the grou...
He is talking to a woman and she is telling him how his father has been to the clinic three times that month and there is nothing they can do about it any longer. He ask to speak with her supervisor which she is the supervisor. Once the woman states that her name is Shaniqua he makes a rude comment and she automatically hung up in his face. After this happens John has a negative impression of all African American women. He is discriminating against all African American women just because what happened with Shaniqua not giving his dad medical assistance. “Discrimination is a hurtful action toward a particular group of people because they belong to that group.” In another scene John is with his partner Hansen and they pull over the Thayer’s who look to be doing some type of sexual intercourse. He doesn’t pull them over, because they are performing sexual intercourse in the car but because they happen to be a part of the particular group he doesn’t like. Since his views of all African American women are changed as negative he forcefully takes his anger out on Christine by sexually harassing her in front of her husband. Her husband wants to react, but he is in a position to where he can’t do anything. Ryan knows what his partner is doing is wrong, but he has to be obedient seeing how he is a police officer. Obedience is following the demands of an authority. He talk’s his partner into letting them go rather than saying that he’s wrong and needs to