From The Frying Pan Into The Fire Analysis

Jonathan Kozol’s Fire in the Ashes is an honest depiction of the hardships and triumphs of families in the South Bronx, New York. In this book, Kozol introduces us to several Hispanic and Black families that he originally met in the Mott Haven/Martinique Hotel in the 1980’s and allows us to view their trajectory in the proceeding 25 years. By allowing the reader a look into the lives of these families, he provides us with a realistic depiction of the disadvantages families living in poverty encounter despite interventions from charity organizations and philanthropic donors. Kozol identifies that without “systematic justice and systematic equity in public education” (Kozol, 2013, pg 304) students in these impoverished neighborhoods will continue to lack the same economic opportunities that may potentially lead them out of the welfare system. Kozol emphasizes lack of stable housing, and unequal educational opportunities, as primarily conditions to perpetuating poverty. Despite the challenges that the families endure, Kozol is able to show that they are resilient.

Another big issue in society is the issue of money and greed. Society tells us that owning

In Blackmore’s essay, she promotes her theory of memetics and memes which, as she defines them, are anything that can be imitated and passed on. This could be an idea, language, styles/fashion, or behavior. She argues that her theory can explain human nature better than any other theory about human behavior. Memes have to cooperate with humans in order for the meme to become popular to then compete with other memes. Fallows, Blackmore, and Berry all examine the theme of competition through humiliation, but through the participants in Win In China, the fundamentalists, and memes, they show how an aspect of cooperation is incorporated with competition in order for success to

Greed takes over many peoples lives today and it seems that the world revolves around money, wealth and other things and it controls many peoples lives. For example, the four children that own walmart made over 29 Billion dollars a year for owning walmart but they pay their 1.4 million workers so little that they can’t support themselfs. This example should really be addressed because even though they make so much money a year that they could just burn most of it and still be rich when their workers struggle to make a living. On the other hand Walmart started from nothing and grew to where it is.

To begin with, I believe that there was more than one conflicts in the story. The conflicts were man vs. nature, man vs. self, man vs. man, and man vs. society. Mattie acquired all of these conflicts throughout the novel. To describe the conflict of man vs. nature, it is explained that the fever had spread through the air and it was up to Mattie to save herself from the disease. She had to “fight” nature and protect herself from the heat as well as the fever until winter arrived. Mattie also fought with herself when she had to decide to give Nell up to the orphanage or keep her in her own hands. Mattie also shows man vs. society as she defended the intruders breaking in the coffeehouse. Man vs. man is explained in the novel when Mattie would argue about doing her chores and going to Polly’s funeral in the

If you went out one day and out of nowhere you find yourself in a life-or-death situation would it be your fault? People in a life-or-death situation should be held accountable for their actions because most of the time people know that if they do something that can put them in a life-or-death situation then something bad will happen but they still do it willingly. Another person might not agree with this claim and say that people should not be held accountable for their actions. The reason he or she might think this is because if when a person does face a life-or-death situation it might not be entirely their fault. The following reasons are examples of why my claim is stronger.

In Fahrenheit 451 ,written by Ray Bradbury, the motif of fire, sparks an interest in the reader which pulls them into the life of Guy Montag. In the daily life of Montag, Bradbury portrays the importance of fire in the censored society. From Montag's standpoint the reader gains a clear perspective of the symbolism and importance of fire. Throughout the story fire is used to represent a different emotion or characteristic. At the start of the book fire symbolizes destruction; towards the middle of the book fire is used to represent change and discovering ones identity; and finally at the conclusion of the story fire symbolizes renewal and rebirth.

The Fire This Time, by Jesmyn Ward, describes and explains the struggles that many African Americans face on a daily basis. In her introduction, Ward wants to address the ongoing racial injustices in the United States. Being an African American woman who grew up in the United States, she has dealt first hand with the “limiting, airtight closet” she describes as living in the American South. Jesmyn Ward gives the readers a glimpse of what the book, The Fire This Time, will be about. Touching on the interwoven past and present of African American lives, the many victims of racial injustice in the United States, and the image White people have of African Americans.

Taking the similes of the two texts we can arrive at the conclusion that conformity allows us to become part of a functioning society but can in turn stifle individuality, expression and self-identity.

It is common to idolize others. However, the majority of people go too far in trying to be like someone that they wish they were, losing sight of their individuality. Being accepted by society and following common trends as opposed to being unique is much easier to do because it is a way to avoid criticism. A person like McMurphy is a role model for people like Chief and myself because of the way he doesn’t care about what other people think of him. Once someone like Chief or myself takes their first steps out of society’s perception of normal, they never look back.

In “The Leopard Man,” Feys’ explains conformity as “the world’s most prevalent and most pernicious psychological disorder. The consequences of it are no less than the suppression and destruction of one’s self” (1). The text evidence show Feys’ point of view on how conformity can be a good or bad thing. The direct quote also illuminates how conformity can lead to one being less of him or herself. Jackson, the author of “The Lottery”, discusses how the com society to death; the author then says that this repetitive behavior of following the majority can make one become less of an individual also known as a follower.

Fire, while it is nearly crucial for a functional society, is an easy element to overuse and abuse, even to the point where it affects the things around it. Fire cannot be easily controlled, and once out of control, regaining power over it is difficult. Montag and the other firemen learn this when they encounter the woman who burns herself rather than have them burn her books (40). By taking the authority from the firemen, she makes Montag realize that they aren’t the only ones with the force of fire behind them. This is shown later in the books when Montag turns the firehose on Beatty, the fire chief (116). When someone takes away this power or makes someone lose control of their element of comfort, the whole situation can spiral out of control quickly.

What does it truly mean to care about one another? As a society, people have begun to stray further and further away from a truly caring society. Society is now evolving into a more and more capitalistic environment where people spend more time not caring about our lives. The increase in our dependence on capitalist society was stated in Arlie Russell Hochschild’s essay “From the Frying Pan into the Fire.” Where Hochschild discusses how modern society is slowly becoming more focused on how people would gain money.

Capitalism started up as a system of investing and sharing money in order to increase the value of resources in the future. Capitalism was just an economic system, but then soon turned into a complex system of ethical practices. Harari defines capitalism as, “a set of teachings about how people should behave, educate their children and even think” (Harari 314). This economic system evolved along with the people that were endorsing it. Capitalism enables the rich to get richer, while the poor continue to get poorer. There are many benefits to capitalism, but there are downfalls as well, and these downfalls tend to be masked because of the rapid speed capitalists grow at. Harari first presents a definition for capitalism, and soon goes into great detail on why capitalism, while fast paced and unforgiving, is able to stand unwavered while other productions fail.

Through the development of human history, economy and technology have been changed in many ways. Development of technology allows people to be in the industrial society, and capitalism takes an important position as an economic system. In order to develop technology, efficiency is necessary. Because of this reason, capitalism also focuses on efficiency seeking to make more profits. As the coming of technology and capitalism society develop the modernity in daily life, efficiency seeking is not only required at the public level but also in the private life, and it influences human connection and intimacy. Arlie Russell Hochschild, the author of “From the Frying Pan into the Fire”, demonstrates how capitalism and its market system influence human connection and intimacy in their private lives, especially in the family and the community. Hochschild claims that capitalism forces people to changing the notion of family because of efficiency-seeking in private life. Sherry Turkle, the author of “Alone Together”, talks about the impacts of technology that allow people to always be connected to one another; however, at the same time, can make them feel alone. Turkle says that technology contributes to human connection but also leads to the loss of real intimacy. Therefore, desire for efficiency not only in the public sphere but also in the private sphere aggravates the absence of authentic relationship and intimacy.