Brendan Walsh

Ms. Parham
Honors World Literature III

12/15/13

Social Expectations and Responsibilities

            Everyday most humans go through their lives in a robot like routine. Humans generally trend to do what other around them do and rarely differ from the path. For each role in society comes a social responsibility. For example the social responsibility you have to your siblings is to love them and help them always. This is unrealistic because not everyone has the same past and lives the same present.  It is unrealistic to expect people to conform to social expectations and social responsibilities due to everyone living in a different situation.

The Bluest Eye contains many good example of how social expectations are unrealistic. Pecola really proves that social expectations and responsibilities are farfetched. Social responsibility to your community means helping out your neighbors. Social responsibility to your school means taking care of your education and helping student’s around you. How could Pecola be expected to conform to these standards? She lives in a community that pities her and attends a school that ridicules her. Social expectations to your race could include defending it or speaking good words about it. Pecola and her neighbors did the opposite. They tried to embrace a whole new culture. Pecola wanted to be white and her community unknowingly despised being black. Responsibilities and expectations to society are absurd because of the wide range of people in the world.

In the Nazi propaganda speech he told the German people that they were united. He spoke for everyone and said they want full-fledged war and that they won’t stop till they reach victory. This put many Germans in bad situations. By making this speech it laid a heavy expectation on the German people by their government. The expectation that was created was that everyone must support the war effort. If a citizen were to deny funds towards the war or to refuse government proposals they would likely be charged with treason or another crime. The responsibility set on German citizens is unrealistic because not everyone supports the war effort to the same degree as the Nazi Brass running the war.

Everybody makes different decisions based on the situation they are in. When one thing is expected from everybody it is impossible. How could somebody be expected to be a good citizen when they have been mistreated and had their money used by a corrupt government. Somebody who has not faced corruption would likely question the person but they would never understand because they are in a very different situation. This example only represents responsibility to government but this same lesson can be applied to any social expectation. If we know that expectations like these are impossible to follow why do we continue to enforce the ideas of them?

Social Expectations in The Bluest Eye

                 Do certain professions have an obligation to be more socially responsible than others? Do some professions require people to be more selfish and focused on their individual desires? Every job has a different obligation to society. In the novel “The Bluest Eye” we saw people play different roles in society. For example Pecola tried to live up to the social standards of models and famous role models. Cholly embodied family and parenthood. Soap head embodied church and religion. Typically these embodiments would mean something else but in this novel they don’t love up to the standards they are supposed to make. Some jobs require people to be responsible while others promote selfishness and individuality. People in the military, FBI, CIA and other agencies/departments like these are held to a higher responsibility level. For example if a member of one of these agencies were to do drugs, underage drink, commit a crime or any other felony, they are likely to be fired. If they committed a felony they are also unlikely to get the job in the first place. Organizations like these also carry a high level of pride so they try to appear and act as socially responsibly as possible. An example of this is how military members wear their uniforms with precision and pride. A worker at McDonalds is less likely to be fired for being caught under age drinking. Also McDonald’s employees generally tend not to care about their uniforms especially in comparison to those in the armed services.

               Some occupations allow people to be very selfish and often irresponsible. An example of this type of job would be an NFL or NBA player. Major league athletes can choose to be selfish and even irresponsible without facing repercussions. Other people that would fall into this category would be musicians, actors, actresses and jobs similar to these. A recent example of this would be Miley Cyrus’s dance routines and comments to the media. It’s safe to say that her actions are provocative and questionably socially irresponsible.

Social Expectations

Brendan Walsh

Ms. Parham

Honors World Literature III

12/4/13

                                                Social Expectations and Responsibilities

Do certain professions have an obligation to be more socially responsible than others? Do some professions require people to be more selfish and focused on their individual desires? Every job has a different obligation to society. Some jobs require people to be responsible while others promote selfishness and individuality. People in the military, FBI, CIA and other agencies/departments like these are held to a higher responsibility level. For example if a member of one of these agencies were to do drugs, underage drink, commit a crime or any other felony, they are likely to be fired. If they committed a felony they are also unlikely to get the job in the first place. Organizations like these also carry a high level of pride so they try to appear and act as socially responsibly as possible. An example of this is how military members wear their uniforms with precision and pride. A worker at McDonalds is less likely to be fired for being caught under age drinking. Also McDonald’s employees generally tend not to care about their uniforms especially in comparison to those in the armed services.

Some occupations allow people to be very selfish and often irresponsible. An example of this type of job would be an NFL or NBA player. Major league athletes can choose to be selfish and even irresponsible without facing repercussions. Other people that would fall into this category would be musicians, actors, actresses and jobs similar to these. A recent example of this would be Miley Cyrus’s dance routines and comments to the media. It’s safe to say that her actions are provocative and questionably socially irresponsible.