Dillard's Essay Lonesome, With Snail

The self could be defined simply as the sense of who we are, and who we are is created and developed over time and through interactions with other individuals in society. Charles Horton Cooley compares the development of self to a mirror in which an individual’s self is basically a reflection of how we think we are viewed by society. This idea of the “looking-glass self” focuses on how we imagine others see us opposed to how they really see us. There are three phases of the looking-glass self that repeats throughout life. In the first phase, an individual imagines he or she appear to others. The second phase involves imagining how others would judge him or her, based off that appearance. In the final phase, the individual uses the assumptions from the first two phases to define his or her

In “Living Like Weasels,” author Annie Dillard’s idea is that humans can benefit from living wild as a weasel. I strongly agree because to live wild like a weasel is to live mindless, free and focused. With these living abilities we as humans will be able get closer to our aspirations in life and do whatever means necessary to get there.

In the 20th century the social psychologist Charles H. Cooley developed the idea of a “looking glass self”; this idea claims that people generally value themselves according to what others think about them. There are three fundamental points to this idea: one’s image according to others, one’s own standard of appearance, and how one develops the “self” through other’s judgments.

Annie Dillard opens Pilgrim at Tinker Creek mysteriously, hinting at an unnamed presence. She toys with the longstanding epic images of battlefields and oracles, injecting an air of holiness and awe into the otherwise ordinary. In language more poetic than prosaic, she sings the beautiful into the mundane. She deifies common and trivial findings. She extracts the most high language from all the possible permutations of words to elevate and exalt the normal. Under her pen, her literary devices and her metaphors, a backyard stream becomes a shrine. Writing a prayer, Dillard becomes an instrument through which a ubiquitous spirit reveals itself. Yet in other cases, she latches on to an image

Do you feel insignificant about yourself ? Does the way the world view you change the way you view yourself? When people judge you they look at your appearance and they also judge you based on other people's assumptions. The average person will judge someone and you’d think they know know them but in reality they don’t know a single detail about that person’s life. Even though everyone has judged someone and everyone has been judged. Our status more times than not, is defined by what we look like, now we dress and where we come from.

Individuals create meanings about the social world, people, objects, and the self, by interacting with others. This perspective illustrates the way people see themselves as a product of how others view them. The self-looking glass perspective states that a person grows out of society's interpersonal interactions and the perceptions of others. In modern society we express through media’s depiction of ideal body image and individual’s overwhelming sense of pressure to conform to such ideals. For example, when women read magazines and watch beauty pageant, or Victoria secret runway show, suddenly women thinks and feels fat and ugly. This is a direct result of the media’s definition of beauty. Women often feel like this because society tells her

The popular culture item I chose was a video titled Dove Real Beauty Sketch which shows real people and real perceptions of themselves, how they perceived others as well as how others perceived them through a sketch drawn by a forensic artist. The forensic artist drew two sketches, one sketch depicted the subject’s personal view of their facial features. The second sketch was a description of the subject given by another subject. The two sketches were later put side by side and compared by the subject drawn. The peer review summary written by McElwee and Dunning “addressing the self as a standard of comparison in social judgment defined the self to be one’s current-held characteristics…extended research on egocentric definitions of social categories and the self-image bias,” (McElwee & Dunning, 2005, p. 113) is influenced by social judgment

Other individual’s appearances are greatly influential during childhood. Ms. Hancock and Charlotte’s mother were both very extreme with their styles. Charlotte’s mother was obsessive about her professional, proper, and elegant dress code. She wore skirts and nylons, with her hair always in place and looked as if “a hairdresser had arrived at 6 a.m.” Both Charlotte’s mother and Ms. Hancock tried to look what was “youthful” in their opinions. People adopt their role model’s styles. For example, in high school, Charlotte was influenced by her mother, because she dressed “maturely”. On the other hand, Miss Hancock always dressed very flamboyant and uniquely. Her make-up and hair stood out from a crowd. She enjoyed wearing “peasant blouses encrusted

Beauty can be viewed in a variety of ways for many different people. Society has made a huge impact on the way people view and think of one another. Since the media has created a specific definition of beauty, people begin to see others in a different light. Those who are considered the “other” are those who the society and media have not deemed beautiful. Alice Walker describes in “Beauty: When the Other Dance is the Self” how her experience with her eye being noticeably damaged had caused her to forget the value of her inner beauty. Similarly, Toni Morrison’s explains in “Strangers” that the media has highlighted the importance of physical appearance instead of a person’s character upon meeting them for the first time. The subject in Johannes Vermeer’s Study of a Young Woman is not conventionally beautiful but Vermeer saw something valuable in the subject that caused him to take his time to paint her. The painting Study of a Young Woman by Johannes Vermeer, challenges the idea of beauty that society has placed on the world and portrays how every human being is beautiful despite those views; although the subject of the painting is “othered” because she is not conventionally beautiful Vermeer choose her because he saw something in her worth more than physical beauty.

Author Carla Krueger once said, “The greatest barrier to self-understanding is our fear of knowing the truth within ourselves, but when we do understand ourselves, we greatly enhance what we are capable of.” I feel as if Miss. Kruger has a very valid point that is entirely pertinent to this essay; understanding one’s self is extremely important if one wishes to reach a stage self-fulfillment. By understanding yourself, you can communicate with others in a more effective and constructive manner. Better communication can then lead to healthier and stronger relationships with friends, family, and coworkers.

Have you ever thought about why we feel about ourselves the way we do? Do you hate yourself or are you confident about who you are? Either way you feel about yourself, this all comes from your self-concept. According to Steven McCornack’s Reflect and Relate “self-concept is your overall perception of who you are.” My self-concept is constantly changing due to confidence boosts or if I become depressed and sad; these factors also influence my self-esteem. My self-concept helps determine how well I am able to communicate with others. “Some psychologists and sociologist have advanced theories that suggest we learn who we are through four basic meaning: our communication with other individuals, our association with groups, roles we assume, and our self-labels” (Beebe 35).

The self-conscious of many people keep them aware of how one’s body image may look. What society today presents as beautiful, may have its effects on a persons self-esteem. Even though seeing oneself as attractive may give that person the self-pride he or she is seeking; seeing oneself as appealing gives that individual that boost of self-confidence. How different persons feel about their self-conscious, influences many factors one may experience in life. Being handsome or beautiful means, one may be taken seriously, one may have a more sense of validation in society and seeing oneself attractive may give them more opportunities in life.

Within self-perception theory, the person observes themselves in the same manner in which they observe others and use that process to acknowledge our own behaviors or ideas of ourselves. Bem suggest that there are two postulates that are associated with self-perception theory. The first is that individuals get to know themselves through the observation of their own behaviors or situations in which certain behaviors occur. Second is that external cues have little affect and the individual is in the same position as an outside observer. An example of this would be the foot-in-the-door effect.

perceiver influences his perception of the others. As per Sears it is seeing our own negative personality traits in others. Perceptual Defense : Demonstrated by Haire and Grunes, perceptual defense refers to the fabricating material which will make one avoid removing his stereotypes already held or changing the beliefs held by him or her in perceiving others. It offers and explanation to the perceptual distortions made by people when they are faced with facts inconsistent with their stereotypes. Characteristics of the perceiver The characteristics of the perceiver which enable him to make perceptions are 1. Knowing oneself makes it easier to see other accurately : When a person is aware of his own traits or has insights, he will be making lesser errors while perceiving others. 2. One's own characteristics affect the characteristics he is likely to see in others : The characteristics which are important to one person will also be looked for when he or she makes an opinion about someone. One uses certain fixed factors while judging others and also the weightage one gives to these factors. 3. The person who accepts himself is more likely to be able to see favorable aspects of other people : If the perceiver is aware of

How a person views themselves is referred to as self-image. This is the mental image of oneself. The characteristics that define a person internally are called self-image. These characteristics include kindness, selfish, talented, ugly, beautiful, intelligent, weight, height, and gender. Self-image also refers to the things a person has learnt about them self, through others judgments, and personal experiences. A person's self-image is something they cultivate over a period of time. Self-image is a mirror reflecting back an image of a person(Pletsch, Johnson, Tosi, Thurston, & Riesch, 1991). The image been reflected is a contribution from caregivers, parents, friends, teachers and family. The image reflected on the mirror can be the real person or the distorted view of them self. A person will then develop a positive or negative self-image based on this view. How a person acts in their adult life, is as a result of the strengths and weaknesses they learn as children and teenagers as they are internalized. Everyday people are taking in information, and they are evaluating them self continually. How a person feels about them self how they think about them self, and how they respond to life are directly related to the person's self-image.