Individual in Society
Individuality according to dictionary.com means "the aggregate of qualities and characteristics that distinguish one person or thing from others; character: choices that were intended to express his individuality; monotonous towns lacking in individuality". Or in other words individuality is what makes people different from one person to another. Although people are different people feel a need to belong to a group in society. I think that people feel that they need to belong to a group because in a group you can talk about your dilemmas and receive comfort from others. In a group of people you can talk about your ambitions and your viewpoint on many topics. Many problems arise from individuality and from feeling the need to belong to a group. Individuality creates many problems because many people will not accept somebody in their group just because they are different. Which then leads to the problem of the need to belong to a group. If you are not pictured as the "normal person" then it is very hard to be accepted by others. Many people will do almost anything to be accepted. Even conform to be like others and loose ones individuality.The first story I will talk about, from the book Facing History a
The second story that I will talk about, which is actually is a combination of two stories, is called The Effects of Religious Stereotyping. The first story is about a man named Major General Robert Bailey Solomon. Major Solomon talks about an incident when one of his fellow soldiers found out he was Jewish. The soldier told him that he did not look Jewish because he was missing his horns. The second story is about a girl named Chana Schoenberger. She had a similar experience when she participated in something called the National Science Foundation Young Scholars Program. This program had people from all religions involved in it. Schoenberger, who was a Jew, had received many, in her opinion, ridicules questions. One girl asked if she still practices "animal sacrifices". This girl also explains about a field trip that she went on with her class where her teacher made the remark "wouldn't want them to get Jewed". Both of these stories are similar in many ways. One way, that was most obvious to me, was because nobody in these stories actually met a Jewish person so their only option is to believe the myths they heard about Jews. Like Jews have horns and Jews are cheap. These stories are a good example of people that are not educated about a religion so the believe in what they hear which in most cases are wrong. Somebody from such a minority, like being Jewish, is hard to become in the mainstream society. This is because since very few people know about the Jewish religion they believe the wrong things. The believe that they are different so they don't want to associate with them
Some common words found in the essay are:
White Black, Carson Carson, Society Individuality, Jews Jews, Schoenberger Jew, Major Solomon, Thaggert Miriam, Conformity Identity, Scholars Program, Chana Schoenberger, story talk, story girl named, victimizer feel, colour skin, religion believe, story named, people colour, feel belong, society people, pick sticks, people feel, people feel belong,
Approximate Word count = 1072
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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