Social Vulnerability has become quite prevalent in modern times as social class and cultural values become more and more well defined in today’s society. In the film, Winter’s Bone, it becomes quite clear what type of social environment the main character, Ree Dolly, lives in. It is one full of drugs, seclusion, and spousal abuse. These things, as awful as they can seem, can be explained simply by looking at where these people fit into society. Their social class and sense of community values shape the way they are all able to live in the world laid out in front of them. Being near the bottom of society on the verge of poverty makes many aspects of life more difficult and creates a strong vulnerability to outside forces. The social environment …show more content…
In a society of drug use and poverty, you are in turn more susceptible to outside stressors and larger consequences faced when dealing with a problem. This is exactly what happens to Ree and her family as they fear for losing their house directly as a result of the drugs that have become so commonplace among her extended family and her father. This also makes it much harder to ask questions and receive information from others as the drug business has put a major emphasis on the code of secrecy and loyalty. Ree becomes a pain for everyone as she embodies the outside threat of law enforcement and poking her nose into what she does not need to know. Even before the task of finding her father with fear of homelessness, her family was vulnerable in many other ways as a result of their social class. As Brett Williams explains in “Body and Soul: Profits from Poverty”, poverty can have major environmental and health consequences. He talks about the poor who live near the very polluted Anacostia River in Washington D.C. and how they are at a risk of toxins and health concerns that often go untreated as they lack the money or amenities to receive proper treatment. Ree’s family lives in a very similar situation. The entire community is riddled with beat down shacks and dogs roaming the wilderness. Ree’s mother is also rendered immobile from their home as she is very sick and most …show more content…
It is clear how living in such an environment can affect how you are forced to behave and act. The adversity and overall helplessness Ree faces can all be pointed back to the environment and social standing she resides in drawing many similarities to the problems faced by the many that are socially vulnerable
In Righteous Dopefiend, Bourgois and Schonberg delve into the lives of homeless drug addicts on Edgewater Boulevard in San Francisco. They highlight the moral ambiguity of the gray zone in which these individuals exist and the institutional forces that create and perpetuate their condition. The authors liken the experience of the daily lives of the Edgewater homeless to living in an everyday “state of emergency” (2009:21). Throughout the course of their work, they expose the conditions of extreme poverty that the homeless experience, the institutional indifference towards their suffering and the consequences of their crippling addictions. Bourgois and Schonberg describe the Edgewater homeless as a ‘community of addicted bodies’ driven by a communal need to avoid the agony of heroin withdrawal symptoms and held together through a “moral economy of sharing”. (2009: 6) The “webs of mutual obligation” that form as a result of their participation in this system are key to the survival of the Edgewater homeless as they attempt to live under conditions of desperate poverty and police repression.
In many ways, Author Wes and Other Wes had very similar negative characteristics such as performing below standards in academics. However, as a result of Author Wes’s financial sacrifices and mental support from his mother, he overcame his struggles and reformed himself in military school to become a progressive citizen. This example of how important a person’s surroundings is to living a successful life relates to many if not all people. One must be given a sufficient and supporting surrounding in order to build the characteristics and mindset to lead a successful life. It is imperative to have a balance of knowledge in subjects taught at school and people who inspire and support you in life. You must not only be a self sufficient human being but also have a sufficient environment to have a fulfilling
The socioeconomic gradient that exists in civilizations with low levels of societal equity has increasingly been implicated as a major contributor to the health status of individual citizens. Thus, it is unsurprising that the neighborhood or place in which a person lives, works, and plays is also a significant social determinant of health. The consequences of one’s environment can range from diminished mental health and increased stress all the way to the development of chronic disease and early mortality. The documentary Rich Hill successfully encapsulates the problems associated with living in poverty by examining the lives of three families from an impoverished area of Missouri. The filmmakers delve into the intricate interpersonal, family,
When Miramar went to go meet her old friends from university, she realized how much they had progressed in life since she first met them. “Tina announced that she had just gotten accepted to nursing school, and Denise said she had decided to apply for an MBA…as they flipped through the pictures commenting on how hot each other’s boyfriend were, I let my posture crumple, feeling more and more like the garden gnome again” (Leung 150). Miramar felt alienated that her friends had such a great future ahead of them with great jobs and earnings while she had no future because she had dropped out of university and left her own family, having to find a house and make money for herself. This affected her emotionally as she did not mention any details on her own future as she hid not only her emotions, but suppressed her life from everyone else. “They looked like kids playing dress-up, but still, I looked down at my jeans and t-shirt and felt left behind” (Leung 149). Miramar felt left out as she wasn’t wearing elegant and somewhat trendy clothes like her friends. Instead she was wearing a typical jeans and t-shirt. Miramar did not lash out or complain verbally for not having clothes similar to her friends, she kept her emotions to herself and lived on in her own gray world. “Mouse was my first real friend in a long time and a good distraction from the wandering thoughts that invariably landed me back in quicksand” (Leung 152). Miramar dealt with her struggles as she finally found a real friend who she could trust and create a real connection and bond with to help her cope with her problems. Mouse was the first person she could open up to again, expressing her emotions freely. Isolation builds a barrier between those who are victims to it and the outside world. Those affected by isolation lose all sense of emotion and contact with the outside world. Only with help
On the other hand, if you are surrounded by an environment which revolves around drugs and bad influences, you have a bigger chance of falling into those same paths. I wasn’t poor but I wasn’t rich either, I was surrounded by an environment in which many people were in need of shelter and food because their families could not afford both. Just like poverty played a major role in my life, so did an ambitious and hardworking environment. Because those people I would see every day on the streets without food or a home, were the ones that had a bigger passion than anyone else, to one day be able to have a stable job and home for their family.
...el, The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson accentuates the fact that society’s expectations of a character causes negative impacts upon their lives through the creation of a struggle to achieve his goal. Ian is an impeccable example of this because he is prone to adolescent tendencies due to youth. Ian struggles to achieve his goals due to the following expectations: to leave Struan, for a superior opportunity to become successful; to strive for a medical career, since he excels at the trade already; and to … Society is too abrupt in its assumptions of an individual, these assumptions often catch one unprepared, spreading chaos and confusion through one’s mind. It would be substantially more beneficial if society did not place expectations at all.
I have first hand seen the childish ways of a drug abusing parent and my overall standpoint is everyone has a weakness, you just need to find a light to bring you out of the dark hole which the monster and sends you down and see what's worth living for. “I believe if you want to write a memoir, you have to tell the entire truth (yes, I understand it will be colored by your personal lenses), and that means truly opening yourself and those around you to public inspection” (Par. 15) said Ellen Hopkins displaying that she takes informing teens as a serious role. A prediction i could infer based upon the parallel relationship between Kristina and her father is if her son is exposed to drugs he will most likely fall in the same path if her she does not tell him the danger of these substances. This novel is a great tool to get the word out there that hard drugs will hurt you, hurt your family and make you a whole new
Connecting Sociology to situations that arise in everyday life has become easier and easier as i have progressed through Intro to Sociology this semester. When choosing what book I was going to analyze for my report, I chose Methland by Nick Reding. It details the quote “death and life of an american small town” through the perspective of those involved in the epidemic of the production of methamphetamine’s in the rural town of Oelwein Iowa. Despite the odds of a poor, small, and rural town in Middle America, Oelwein climbed to the top of the economic ladder with a multi million dollar drug franchise spread throughout the 1990’s. The midwest suffered greatly in the 1980’s with the downfall of the agricultural business in the United States. Soon drug dealers started flocking to these seemingly desolate towns in rural America to safely distribute their product. With the loss of jobs due to the farming downfall, many residents of Oelwein were seeking work and pay in anyway they could find. This is what started the official meth epidemic. Reding spent 4 years in his hometown of Oelwein Iowa to gain insight on the production and consumption of methamphetamine’s in this small town and also shines a spotlight on the problems of meth in this country today. But ironically, the comparison in this story of how the production and consumption of meth seemed to be driving this small town further into extinction, it also brought it back to life. Despite the destruction methamphetamines caused in Oelwein Iowa, the epidemic also brought the town back to life in a way that is irreversible. The highlight of the division of social class and who is able to climb up the social ladder is themed throughout the entire novel.
Ana’s home is safe and she feels safe in it, however, she lives in a dangerous neighborhood. Anan’s living situation is a source of resilience as she enjoys the family unity. Ana is aware of community services available to her; Ana uses the public transportation system to get around her neighborhood. She says that she is aware of services available to her community.
The nature of isolation starts when an individual starts to separate him/herself from others, socially and emotionally, and is also used as a defense from dangerous people. One example is where Crooks tells that “The white kids come to play…… My ol’ man didn’t like that” (70). He’s been taught from his childhood to be by himself so that he would not get in trouble. Candy demonstrates this concept too when he talks about his fate after having to witness the shooting of his only companion, his old dog. “When they can me here I wisht somebody’d shoot me. But they won’t do nothing like that. I won't have no place to go, an’ I can’t get no more jobs”. This quote argues that men with disabilities and color in this book are treated as bad as dogs or even worse. Humans are evil by nature and by birth. It is how the world was made. To love and to hate, although, the latter wins. People in the higher caste tend to blame everything small thing that they get in trouble for on people under them. Therefore, when individuals intend to protect themselves, they isolate themselves from the world, emotionally and
Isolation often creates dismay resulting in an individual facing internal conflicts with themselves. Ann experiences and endures unbearable loneliness to the point where she needs to do almost anything to
Many environmental factors contribute to a person’s proneness to substance abuse. These factors include but are not limited to stress, early physical or sexual abuse, witnessing violence, peers who use drugs, and drug availability. (Addiction Science) The desire to be accepted within a particular group often creates an enormous amount of stress in teens. This stress and feeling of alienation is a driving force towards drug use. Research has shown that, “Another important environmental factor is the amount and quality of emotional and social support a person receives. Teens who reported having an adult they trusted and could talk to, for example, have a lower risk of addiction than those who don’t.”(Environmental Factors) An impoverished environment increases the likelihood of substance abuse and addiction as well. Those who are apart of a lifestyle of poverty often experience incarceration and dropping out of school. Those who drop out of school, are unemployed or live in unsafe areas are at “higher risk, especially if their home environment has already exposed them to dru...
Because of this, she needed to protect her owns as she need to lie in the court or her family will no longer be protected nor respected. This related to one of the social issue, violence, when Eva decided to tell the truth, but had to pay the consequence, beaten up by her own gang. All she had time to worry about was her safety and survival, and nothing else which the rest of her classmates felt. Another social issue would be poverty as most of Gruwell’s students either live in the project or the parents kick them out or any type of situation that can happen. This film also contrasts poverty and middle class by placing a white student among gang affiliated students. In the beginning of the film, the white student sat in the front of the class as it was a sense of safety being in front of the teacher as she is also white. But when Gruwell arranged the classroom for all her students to get along and not to get violent with one another, the gang affiliated students resent him because he is white and does not live a harsh life. In a way, poverty is connected to gang life because they want to feel protected, and
Her use of connotative language creates many harsh images of her experiences in a life of poverty, a life of poverty. By using these images, Parker is capable of causing the damage. reader to feel many emotions and forces the reader to question his or her own stereotypes of the poor. With the use of connotative language and the ability to arouse emotion, Parker successfully compels the reader to examine his or her. thoughts and beliefs on who the poor are.
Poverty on social conditions affects everyone in every part of the world, no matter if they are rich or poor. First of all, everyone is divided into some sort of social class. The most known classes are the economic classes- the lower class, the middle class, and the higher class. The lower class goes through arduous labor all day and night to earn decent amounts of money to provide for themselves and their families. Most likely, they are the only source of income for the entire family. The higher class works hard to keep up or raise their high social status. They also work hard so they don’t loss their social rank, which permits them to hold a higher power over the middle and lower classes. Similarities of decisions made by characters in these two literary works will analyzed to understand the meaning behind the actions and influences of the social classes on each other.