Farmington Maine: A Personal Analysis

There are many things that can influence a person’s perspective on the world; culture plays a huge part and in this

1. Using symbolic interaction theory as your guide, explain how the terms “aliens” and “illegals” helped shape public opinion/attitudes in Farmingville towards Latino day laborers. What do these words mean? How did these definitions influence perceptions and behaviors?

Alien in one definition is: “Too different from something to be acceptable or suitable,” and Illegal in one definition is “Not allowed by the law.” (Mirriam-Webster Dictionary) The words ‘Alien’ and ‘Illegal’ have inherent negative connotations. A person does not need to know the intimate or factual circumstances associated with those words to understand their symbolism. When those words are used to label the social group of undocumented Latino day laborers the inherent reaction is to see them in a negative way. The individuals become a stigmatized group. The people against undocumented immigrants in Farmingville saw the Latinos through the lens of the stigmatized group “illegal aliens.” They thus became

The daily life of the Connecticut colony was very busy and included that the women worked in home, raising the children, cooking meals, sewing clothes and weaving cloth. The girls have to learned the skill to manage a home, the men worked hard outside in the farms and fields (plantations) the had to do all in hand. The boys were helped the father, cleared land, built fences, butchered animals and split wood, and the girls helped the mother, sometimes they did go to school but it was more important that the boys learned to read and write because they worked outside with the men and they thought that it was important to know. They just had one religion named Puritans that it was like the catholic religion.

Often we hear that Maine can be broken up into two separate bodies based on terms of socioeconomic status, urban vs. rural, or even North vs. South. Maine is a diverse state, and the idea that there are, “Two Maines,” is a plausible theory that can be applied based on these terms. Based on urban-rural division, the state could be divided in two, with the counties who have coast line, including Androscoggin, and Kennebec rely heavily on their fishing industries and tourism for their economy. The Northern counties, on the other hand, rely more upon agriculture and farming to support themselves. This divide also separates rural from urban, where “large” city centers are found near the coast, and the rural population is more predominant in the

Barnstable Town, Massachusetts (MA) is located is an affluent section of Cape Cod. The town is comprised of several village communities, including the exclusive island communities of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. With a population of just over 45,000 people and a median family income of $54,026, one wouldn't expect to find many addiction issues in the area. Unfortunately, Barnstable Town, Massachusetts has more than its fair share of addicts that need help.

Realizing we have more in common than not, when I meet new people, I look at them as individuals. I take into consideration the concrete, the behavioral and the symbolic for they all have their place in a person being who they are. Yes, I wish others could see and gain understanding for other cultures through my eyes. For example, “it is possible to acquire a new culture by becoming disabled, moving to a new country or region, or by a change in our economic status. When we think of culture this broadly we realize we all belong to many cultures at once” (Community Tool Box, 2013).

New England is a region located in the northeast corner of the United States, which was made up of six different U.S. states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. New England’s economy relied a lot on the ocean. Fishing (especially codfish) was most significant to the New England economy, but whaling, trapping, shipbuilding, and logging were important too. There was also very few slaves in New England, because most households relied on the labor of their own members, including women in the home and children in the fields. Sons would stay unmarried until their mid-twenties because that’s when they were expected to receive land from their fathers, local authorities, or by moving into a new town.

A worldview is a system of beliefs that we model our lives after. It is how we perceive the world and others around us (Rusbult, n.d.). A person’s worldview is affected by how he/she is raised, his/her culture, his/her living situation (Rusbult, n.d.). A person’s parents and upbringing plays an important part in how that person interacts with others and thinks. A world view is like wearing colored glasses (Gutierrez, 2014). The way we see things, or perceive things, is based on the color of the glasses we are wearing. Where did we get these colored glasses? We obtain our “worldview glasses” from our parents, our culture, our friends, the media, and our religious beliefs. (109 words)

In class we have been discussing the analogy of perspectives. A perspective is a way of seeing, also thought of as a ‘point of view’. This mental view or outlook can both enhance and constrain how we view the world in our own eyes. In the field of psychology and sociology there are many ways to perceive our world in which we live. No one perspective alone can define the world. Each perspective has its own distinctive strengths and blind spots. In class we have discussed different theories and analogies to better understand the complexity of perspectives.

Dr. Phillip C. McGraw once wrote, “No matter how flat you make a pancake, it’s still got two sides”. Humans have overcome many obstacles throughout our existence, but one of the biggest obstacles that we still face today is only looking at the world through our perspective. When you only look from your own perspective you miss a whole sea of different views. Whether people will admit it or not, being able to look at someone else’s point of view will bring us farther than only focusing on our own. Dr. Phillip also wrote, “It’s a skill you can cultivate, just like flipping a pancake”.

Perspective determines how a person will think about a community. A scholar, for example, has a bird’s eye view and therefore a broader scope of the community. So, scholars are more inclined to view the community as a separate entity from themselves. An individual member, on the other hand, has a worm’s eye perspective and naturally would think about the same place in a personal and attached manner. Evidence of how people think differently towards a community can be seen in the news, where both the scholar and member perspectives are shown.

When it comes to the culinary tourism in the USA, Maine comes atop the list of top foodie destinations in our country. Maine’s internationally renowned seafood dishes, pristine beaches and small town charm appeals to most visitors. However, the recent scenario of Maine’s tourism is seen taking a new route. With the increasing popularity of wilderness camping options in Maine, the local tourism is offering better scopes for avid wilderness entrepreneurs.

People have different perspectives of life because they interpret their actions differently. Three main ways to interpret people’s actions are by thinking as a functionalist, conflict, and interactionist. A functionalist thinks of the world as half-full while a conflict perspective is when the world is looked as being half-empty. Then an Interactionist perspective is based on symbolism. Imagination should be used to understand other people’s perspectives, it makes it far easier to understand someone who doesn’t necessarily think the same way as you do. Generally, I only understand people because I put myself in their situation and think about anything that was happening in their life at the time and also apply their feeling from those things

As diverse characters of the planet, we entirely perceive our surroundings through our very own paradigm, which is shaped based on identity. When seeing the world through a paradigm one is effectively viewing and interpreting through a certain filter. For example, if a scientist is observing an art piece, he may not be able to perceive it through the artist’s paradigm and in order to be a critic of the art, he must understand what the illustrator is trying to portray. Because art can vary from a detailed painting in such dull colors to a bright coloured rectangle, and to look at it through a scientific paradigm he will not understand the story behind the art piece. This rectangle could represent someone’s entire life, as would the detailed painting. And for one to view it through an extremely different paradigm, they may not see past the ‘pretty picture’ or ‘plain rectangle’.