More handpicked essays just for you.
The challenges of adolescents in society
Adolescence and self esteem essay
Adolescence and self esteem essay
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
One Tree Hill is a television series I was introduced to a few years ago and had the opportunity of watching on Netflix before it was unfortunately removed. This episode begins with a boy named Jimmy Edwards expressing his hatred for his school Tree Hill High and his inability to fit in. As he walks into the school, he sees the group of boys that had just beat him up the night earlier, going through his locker. When the guys see him, they laugh and purposely bump into him. As they walk away Jimmy pulls a gun out of his pocket and fires at the boys, fortunately he misses, but the gun fire causes students to scatter and scream in search for safety. Because this shooting occurred so fast, nobody is aware of who the shooter is, and he is welcomed …show more content…
into the tutor center which is then locked to keep safe. Little does everybody know that the shooter is in the room with them. Throughout this episode, we see Jimmy's hurts, frustrations, and disappointments from the past come out in a form of serious violence and anger.
Jimmy proclaims several times during the episode that he just wanted the bullying to stop, for once he wanted to be the one with the power and he believed bringing a gun to school would do just that. It is obvious that Jimmy is suffering from depression and is in a very lonely stage of his life. He longs to have friends that understand him and care for him, but they all ditched Jimmy for popularity and left him behind. As the episode concludes, Jimmy realizes the severe consequences of his actions and commits suicide. Several aspects of Jimmy's personality really come to light this …show more content…
episode. Surface traits are traits that can be observed of behavior. On the surface, Jimmy seems to a very shy and the kind of kid that likes to keep to himself. Source traits are traits at a deep level of personality and are not observable. On the inside, Jimmy longs for a true friend and just wants to be noticed. This grand difference between his surface and source personalities displays that just because someone acts one way, does not mean that is their true feelings. Behaving in a way that is the opposite of your true feelings is a defense mechanism known as reaction formation. People use this defense mechanism in order to keep their true feeling's repressed. Hans Eysenck was a personality theorist who described personality using three major traits: introversion/extroversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism.
According to Eysenck's personality chart, because Jimmy is so introverted and high on neuroticism, he is increasingly anxious, moody, unsociable, quiet, and reserved. We can see Jimmy's anxiety beginning to grow as he realizes the police are closing in on him and his future will never be the same. Many things can be learned by observing people's personality traits, but Jimmy's story gives us an example of how you may appear to be shy and quiet on the inside but be a dark and troubled individual with plans of murder beneath the surface. As Jimmy entered the end and the darkest part of his life, his expectancies and subjective value plummeted drastically. The social-cognitive theory defines expectancies as personal predictions about the outcomes of behavior and subjective value as the importance individuals place on desired outcomes. After he was rejected from MIT, which seemed to be the only thing he was still living for, he saw no purpose in his life. Those who find little to no value for their lives are much more likely to find themselves deeply depressed and in extreme cases, suicidal just like
Jimmy. In conclusion, both the trait theory and the social-cognitive theory can tell us a lot about Jimmy's observable personality as well as his underlying desires. When looking at Jimmy's life as a trait theorist, his quiet and introverted behavior can be perceived as a red flag. Often, the people who are the quietest and keep to themselves are the one's suffering the most on the inside. Secondly, when inspecting Jimmy's behavior as a social-cognitive theorist, it is obvious that severe bullying as a leading environmental factor in his anxious behavior as well as in his violent behavior. While bullying is no excuse to threaten your classmates with a weapon, bullying as well as depression has very much negatively affected Jimmy's cognitions and thought process. This episode of One Tree Hill was a real eye opener for me as it taught me no matter how much you think you know somebody judging by outward appearance, the condition of their heart and their state of mind could be completely contrasting.
"Columbine High School Shootings." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 08 Sept. 2015. Eighteen year old Eric Harris and seventeen year old Dylan Klebold were two boys with a fascination of violent video games and music. These young men were known to be “goth” and were bullied all throughout their high school careers because of their different interest. In 1999, on April 20th these boys went into their high school with mixed emotions and a devious plan to get revenge. The two teens went into the high school with handguns and killed both students and faculty members, before they turned the guns around on themselves. This is a reliable source because it informed us of both previous emotion, and the aftermath of the tragedy with detail about the boys, the school and the lives affected. This source was relevant for me because of how thoroughly it described the shooting, and gave me background information as to why and how it happened.
Some humans believes that life is pointless because they think no one cares about them. In the story The Devil and Tom Walker by Edgar Allan Poe, Tom made a pact with the devil that he could be rich in return for his soul. Tom declined his offer went home
Human nature tells us to want what we can't or don't have. Everything from people to a toy to a kind of hairstyle – we just always want what isn't ours. Chris McCandless from Jon Krakauer's Into The Wild is no exception. He lives his life as part of an upper-middle class family, is smart, and goes to and does well in college, but he still feels like something is missing from his life. He want something completely opposite of the life he's used to. Chris McCandless spent a lot of time looking for something entirely different from what he already had and while he found true happiness it eventually lead to his demise.
fact Jimmy tends to get into a relationship to “fix” the other person, which is unhealthy for them both, an example of this is in this is when Jimmy narrates “[s]he (Jimmy’s mother) might even slap him, and then cry and hug him. It could be any combination of those things.” (Atwood 33) Jimmy thinks here of mother’s abusive actions. Jimmy would act out for attention and would receive “any combination of those things” (Atwood 33). Jimmy’s relationship with his father is not much better as shown when he comments: “[b]y OrganInc’s math-and-chem-and-applied-bio yardstick he must have seemed dull, normal: maybe that was why his father
In The “So Called Iced-Cream” by Daniel Barwick and “How Not to Get Into College: The Preoccupation with Preparation” by Alfie Kohn both demonstrate that life is meaningless without having passion for the things you do and things you wish to achieve in life. First of all, from Barwick’s essay Monty Burns has everything in gross excess yet cannot bring joy into his life. For instance, the narrator writes, “How could it be that Mr. Bums is unhappy? He has his own Xanadu, a nuclear power plant that he runs with his iron fist, a chauffeur driven Rolls-Royce, control over the local Republican Party… He was even reunited with his precarious teddy bear, Bobo. What, then, might the problem be? (Barwick, 3) Despite
Occasionally, when someone is going through a difficult time, they possibly will feel that the universe is not in their favor, and a sense of hopelessness may set in. Victor was having a hard time financially. Before receiving the news of his father’s death, he had lost his job with the “Bureau of Indian Affairs” (274). With nowhere else to turn for help, victor contacted the tribal council for assistance. The tribal council itself was “having a difficult time financially”, and could only assist him with a hundred dollars which was not nearly enough to fund his trip to phoenix (275). With only a hundred dollars, victor’s circumstances were becoming more complex to manage. Victor’s probl...
Wolf argues that a person must feel something towards his or her project or activities and that the person must feel gravitated toward this project and it must excite them or they may be passionate about it. But, not all people feel the same way in what they do. It doesn’t necessarily mean that their lives are meaningless, just that they look at what they’re doing with a different perspective. The person might be (i) spontaneous in what they choose to do; the activity excites them but they like to do things at different times, (ii) unreflective or idle; they don’t really think about or are not self-reflective about their beliefs, (iii) episodic and has no long term commitments to their projects, or they may be (iv) detached in what they do and they may not love or feel passion towards anything they do. Each example is of a person who may not be passionate and not feel anything towards their projects but have at least some success in such activities. This person may do different kinds of work, help people, and admire art the same way normal people do just with less passion and excitement but with the same amount of success. It would not be fair to say this person’s life lacks meaning because they’re less
An individual’s meaning or purpose in life cannot truly be realized unless they are faced with a situation in which their course of action directly affects their future. In most cases, humankind is forced to face an extreme circumstance when something comes to an end, whether it be positive or negative, for that ending means that change is inevitable and approaching. Thus, life becomes more meaningful as something ends, for people are forced to realize what is truly important to them as well as the idea that nothing lasts forever. Individuals must choose which of the aspects and goals of their lives are the most significant and should be focused on as they approach a resolution, as can be seen in the Gawain Poet’s Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Therefore, due to the finality of an ending and the uncertainty of the following events, humankind can reveal what they believe are the
At 11:19 in the morning of April 19, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold stood at the west entrance of Columbine High School preparing for the deadliest shooting in American school history. One of them yelled, "Go! Go!," and then the two pulled out their shotguns and began firing, killing two students almost immediately (Jefferson County 3). Harris and Klebold began moving through the school randomly shooting students, detonating pipe bombs, and yelling about how much fun they were having. While this was happening, Coach Dave Sanders and other heroes were frantically trying to get students out of harm's way. At 11:26, while running past the library warning students of the killers, Sanders was shot by one of the shooters. He made it into a science room where first aid was administered by students. He died several hours later in that same room. The worst killing took place in the library during a span of about eight minutes starting at 11:29. Ten students were killed and twelve others were wounded. After leaving the library, Harris and Klebold wandered around the school in movements that appeared to be "extremely random" (Jefferson County 18). They eventually returned to the library at about 12:08 and killed themselves. In 49 minutes, 14 students were left dead, one teacher was left dying, 23 people were injured, and an entire community's sense of safety and security was shattered.
Again, I believe Taylor is missing some important feature to his theory. It seems he is correct in stating one should have their own sense of meaning to their life not just others’ perception that one’s life is meaningful. However, there is still the problem of giving equal meaning to everyone life that is doing what they love to do. As a result, to answer this problem one could suggest in order for one to have a meaningful life a person must be subjectively fulfilled by pursuing objectively valuable ends. This way it ensures the person must find meaning in their own lives as well as creating something that benefits many that will give others the perception the person has a meaningful life.
A man carrying two revolvers and two 9mm semi-automatic handguns calmly strode into the Dunblane Primary School. Two people quickly spotted the firearms and tried to tackle the man; he shot them and left them wounded as he continued his journey down the hall of the school. Finally, the man reached his destination: the gym, where a class a kindergartners were having P.E. In the gym, he pulled out the guns and started picking off the five-year-olds one by one. The room was splattered with blood as young children broke like porcelain dolls under the power of the gun. The blood continued to flow, but the intruder did not stop; he took careful aim to make sure he didn't miss. The final insult came when he shot the teacher who was shielding kids with her body. Once he killed her, he killed the kids she was protecting. When he finished in the gym , he turned around walked out, shot at a class as he walked down the hall and walked out into the courtyard. In the courtyard, the killer ended the ordeal by taking his own life (Pederson).
Informative Statements: This shooter was Seung-Hui Cho who killed 32 then later killed himself, he was armed with Glock 19 and a Walther P22, this attack may have been cut short if the campus had allowed students and faculty to carry firearms.
Jonathan Edwards was a man who could petrify any eighteenth century Puritan. He was born in East Windsor, Connecticut and was raised in a household with strict religious beliefs. In 1727 he began his preaching career as an assistant to his grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, the pastor at the church at Northampton, Massachusetts. When his grandfather died two years later, Edwards became the pastor of the Church at Northampton and began preaching all over New England. He then emerged as one of the leaders of the Great Awakening with his determination to return to the orthodoxy of the Puritan faith. That is when he adopted his “fire and brimstone” emotional style of sermon. Although people often ran out of the church in hysterics, most stayed in the church captivated by his speeches. He had always purposely chose to address his congregation with a sermon, using all of the elements of an oratory. In Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Jonathan Edwards displays all elements of an oratory by appealing to emotions, including expressive and rhythmic language, addressing the needs and concerns of his audience, and inspiring others to take action.
Upon reading more closely, the story is revealed to present a tragic journey of a man who has lost his sanity but seeks solace in the materialistic comforts of his old life. The story succeeds in making a number of statements about human nature: that wealth is the most powerful measure of social status and anyone without it will face ostracization; that denial of one 's mistakes and unfortunate circumstances only leads to more pain; that even the most optimistic people can hold dark secrets and emotional turmoil inside them. All of these themes compel the reader to ponder their real-life implications long after the story is
...e doesn't know where he is, or where he's going. He'll never do anything, and he'll never amount to anything" (Osborne 90). Thus, since Jimmy character is summed has no revolution to fight, he makes one wherever he can, creating multiple tirades and outburst to anger and alienate himself from his friends and family, only to end up where he originally started. Osborne hints through Jimmy’s character that he belonged in an era where change and progression was rampant, but instead, is forced to suffer through an era of stability and non-action. Therefore, Jimmy’s anger is a result of the built of tension and aggravation he has for not being able to find his place in society, and his outburst are his only outlet to feel that he has somewhat of a purpose in the society in which he lives.