Introduction
The community shapes the life of its members by promoting certain activities within the society. The essay describes how the following short stories applies in a real life setting: “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas,” 2BR02B by Kurt Vonnegut, “Truth or Consequences” and the “Arts of Contact Zone” by Mary Pratt. The thesis statement is behaviors that develop into an immoral society.
A short by Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” bases it claims towards the pursuit of Righteousness. The author states that, “for an individual to stay happy, he or she must stand up for what is right, even if it means letting go of the familiar.” The inhabitants of Omelas stand between making a choice either by ignoring the distressed child held in captivity or decide to fight for what is right. The community plays a major role in shaping the life of its people. This is explained from the story as the residents of Omelas hesitated to abstain from comfort and move away from their city, as they prefer to let an innocent child suffer and be the sacrificial lamb.
The citizens of Omelas are told that if the child is allowed its freedom, their society will breakdown, and all the precious things in the city will vanish. A large number of the community admits that the good of many must be respected than that of one. Therefore, they decides to use the child as a scapegoat because of lack of readiness to advocate for what is right. The author explains how the child suffers, and no one was ready to assist it. He utters, “Perhaps it was born defective, or perhaps it has become imbecile through fear, malnutrition, and neglect.” The social and the moral values of the people of Omelas had decayed, and their happiness was not meant to offer any form of help to the suffering child.
2BR02B by Kurt Vonnegut discusses the state of the community and the conditions they experienced. There is a perception that the future world was very beautiful as Kurt claims that, “no prison, no slums, no asylums, no cripples, no poverty, no wars." The authorities control the population of America not to exceed beyond forty million. From the story, we read that, "Not many people were born a day anymore." It looks very weird because individuals were expected to volunteer to die so that they can allow life to a newborn. Anyone who volunteers to die contact the FBT (Federal Bureau Termination) so that his life is taken away. The author tries to show how the future of his society is expected to be perfect but in the real sense, there is nothing good in it because of the torture where people have to volunteer to die.
In the short story, Kurt refers to a very famous quote from Hamlet, "To be or not to be." In the line, Shakespeare meant that one had chances to either live or not. The good people in the society are destined to live forever. In a situation where more than one child is born, an individual must volunteer to die to allow the child survives. With such arguments, the author believes that euthanasia was not effective in control of the population.
Community plays a significant role in shaping the lives of the individuals in the society. For example, in the “Truth and Consequences,” there are three classes of society, i.e., lower, upper and middle classes. It is evident from this story that the community holds a perception that lower class people should be treated with least respect and the upper and the middle class often reject it. The perception extends for the parents to the children who view themselves as different according to the class their parent belong.
In “Truth or Consequences” case, this community influences their children to abandon the social and moral value. Instead of the children growing knowing that they should respect each other, they are the community subject them to exercise discrimination. In this story, the older girls from the prestigious families usually pry upon the girls from the lower and less popular girls. As Emily narrates, “they began with simple questions. How old are you? What’s your middle name? This led to more complicated (ad crueler) ones.” This older girls represented the prestigious and the upper social class. On the other hand, Emily was embarrassed by the kiss because the kiss came from a lower person in the society.
However, from the Emily’s story, it could be seen that lack of positive social interaction has resulted to adverse consequences to the isolated classes. When Emily, was promoted to the upper class, she started interaction with older girls, and consequently developed sense of commitment to her community.
In the “Arts of Contact Zone” by Mary Pratt, the theory of social integration is evidently applied. The story shows how social interaction can positive affect the life of an individual. With this interaction in what Mary Pratt calls “Contact zone” people are able to develop physical, emotional and mental benefits since they feel as accepted part of the society. For instance, through baseball cards and schooling, Sam acquired “ the broadest, most varied, most enduring, and most integrated experience of his thirteen-year life.” Thus, an individual has to be exposed with different aspects of the community to be able to learn many lessons of life.
Interacting with people who come from communities that have different values, culture and idea, one is able to develop their perspective bout what they know about the world. For instance, in Stanford University Pratt was able to learn about different cultures, ideas and values that shaped up her life. At the Americas course, Pratt was able to establish contact zone, and at the end, she states, “I learned a lot about them there, and I am thankful.”
The 21st century culture
The current state of the world explains the uniqueness in the 21st century culture. The transformation is clear, and a new culture has risen. In my view, I cannot agree that everything has changed for the better. In the past, TV stations were limited thus; family members had enough time to spend together contrary to the present state. In the 70s and 80s, children would spend most of their time in outdoor activities and the world was safe. There was no exaggerated price escalation of basic commodities, and inflation remained a nightmare to many. I recall how we used to value the community activities with a sense of discipline.
In the current state, the young people have been brainwashed by the media, and they do not live a life of their own. The media has created an immoral society where everyone is selfish and greedy. Individuals never care on the issues affecting the welfare of the society. Marriages of the same sex are now allowed, and abortion is no longer a crime. All the values of human life are affected by the tendency of civil groups to fight for the human rights of everyone despite the evil they conduct.In the history of American Culture, societies have been stratifying themselves along preordained or economic class lines. The United States has for long claimed that class divisions were no longer considered in the exceptional American culture. However, the current social structure seems to be divided into three social orders that can be traced from the unmatched prosperity of the past years. However, the classes are not determined by the wealth, but by occupation and education. The uppermost social class is the ruling or the elites. The second class comprises of the citizen who provide resources and labor to drive the economy of the country. The lower class contains individual who are restricted by education to earn living, hence wholly depend of the government.
Work cited
Le, Guin U. K. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas. Mankato, Minn: Creative Education, 1993. Print.
Adams, Alice. The Stories of Alice Adams. New York: Knopf, 2002. Print.
