Hallway Hangers and The Brothers Essay

The 1985 comedy drama movie, The Breakfast Club, included five teenagers who are in Saturday school detention for various reasons and at the end of the day must write an essay that explains how they define themselves. In Saturday school detention, each teenager learns about one another, what they have in common, and why they were assigned to be in detention. The teens all have similar problems with stereotyping of how society and especially how their parents define them. In the movie, four of the main characters: Claire, John, Andrew, and Allison experience at least one of the following theories: strain theory, social learning theory, control theory, and labeling theory.

In the book The Outsiders by S.E Hinton, it's built around the class division between the Socs and the greasers. The kids in the Socs came from privileged and wealthy families while the greaser grew up in a unstable and poor environment, and it shaped who they are and how they act. The novel deals with issues important to urban teens, and the obstacles that are part of their daily lives, showing realism in Hinton's writing. In the article ¨The Urban Experience in Recent Young Adult Novels¨ by Sandra Hassell and Sandy Guild, it discuss the importance of urban teens worlds represented in literature. The article consists of many characteristics that are established in urban youth books such as, the usage of slang, strong sense of community,

Throughout the 1992 film, “Boyz in the Hood,” John Singleton takes a closer look at urban black America in South Central Los Angeles. Doughboy, Ricky and Trey, along with their parents are chronicled from childhood to adulthood. Each person, though living in the same neighborhood chooses different paths in life. These characters were raised in a very deviant community, however there were many causes as to why they did not all become deviant. Deviance is defined as behavior that goes against what is socially acceptable. It is when a person disregards what is normal in a specific society and acts upon it. Throughout the movie these characters had many chances to engage in deviant behavior, as some did while

In some way, Ponyboy was the “Outsider” in his gang and he was fine with that he would go to movies read a book. But he can take a hit and he can fit in if he wants. He just has different interest. They live in a ghetto place and they defined themselves as” Greasers are almost hoods; we steal things and drive old souped-up cars and hold up gas stations and have a gang fight once and awhile.” When you grow up in this environment and have a like a brother be like this it can reflect on you. Then When there parents die that can really affect the person you could be. Friends family and towns can really shape you like in the story Ponyboy calls a good time messing around doing illegal things with soda. One of the things they do is go to a place like”The Dingo is a pretty rough hangout; there's always a fight going on there and once a girl got shot.” This is there hangout if you go into a place like that you have to be a person that fits in. Then only one he really hung out with was a boy named johnny they were just friends having a good time with each other but for johnny it was harder because he was so beaten up at one point he wasn’t really the same. “And nobody in our gang digs movies and books the way I do.” Like ponyboy would never commit a really bad crime in this point of his life. In the text it stated” However, Ponyboy does concede that the two groups' emotional responses to life.” Ponyboy he is just in his own world and he likes things that nobody in his gang likes. But everyone has a little bit of a difference in the gang but Ponyboy is really different in this point in his life.

“In our media-intensive culture it is not difficult to find differing opinions… The difficulty lies in deciding which opinion to agree with and which ‘experts’ seem the most credible” (Espejo 11). The perceptions of one age group in society of another age group are built upon assumptions that are made through what is visible. However, rarely is anyone willing to understand the reason behind someone’s actions. Sibling rivalry, the death of a loved one, moving to a new school, competition among peers, and the reputation adolescents have today often end up giving a misperception of society to teens and of teens to society, thus damaging the relationships between society, as illustrated by J.D. Salinger in The Catcher in the Rye.

The Socs are the rich kids and the Greasers are the “hoods.” The Socs’ and the Greasers, just like teenagers today, struggled with a lot of problems. Some problems that teenagers struggle with are: their body, their outward appearance (clothing, makeup, etc.), figuring out who they are, their family (parents fight a lot, parents not together, illness, siblings), friends (who they hang out with), social status (i.e. popular not popular) and social media (what people say about your post / how you can improve " the way you look"). Needless to say, teenagers today are under a lot of pressure, they are handling adult issues, and need support and guidance. Sadly, many adults do not understand these issues or know how to respond to these problems.

Humans need to feel a sense of acceptance and belonging; moreover, teens need to feel loved and valued by their families. If the family does not meet this need, they tend to attach themselves to another social group, usually to a group of friends. Unfortunately, without these close ties to their families, some teens will attach themselves to a group of delinquents and adopt a gang lifestyle. In her novel The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton illustrates how Ponyboy, Johnny, and Dally’s dysfunctional family situations led them to attach themselves to the Greasers while demonstrating how these choices resulted in tragic consequences.

Think of Superman, an alien living in a human world, or Harry Potter, a wizard boy inconspicuously clueless to everything about the community he is suddenly introduced to. In S.E. Hinton’s novel, The Outsiders, rich kids called Socials, or Socs, are the rivals of delinquent greasers. But, some characters don’t match these descriptions. Some Socs only want peace, and some greasers would rather read a book than fight in a rumble. Ponyboy, Darry, and Cherry are three clear examples of outsiders.

This group differs from the Brothers in that they are white, with the exception of two members and form a distinctive subculture that participates in the “underground world” of addiction, drug trafficking, and other illegal activity. The Hangers are also not interested in succeeding within the educational system, show patterns of aggressive behavior toward others, hold various racist attitudes and beliefs. After his first stint with the Hallway Hangers, MacLeod asserts, “In the eyes of the Hallway Hangers, the opportunity structure is not open, a view that prevents them from accepting their position and the inequalities of the social order as completely legitimate” (p. 121). Not to his surprise, Macleod finds the Hangers eight years later undereducated, imprisoned, unemployed, and resistant to a system or societal structure they see no future in”. Thus, in comparison to the “seven Brothers, who are black except for one person and also reside in Clarendon Heights, refuse to submit to the Hangers lifestyle in the hope that hard work will pay off in the form of economic opportunity. In agreement with the “achievement ideology” the Brothers look to excel in school and sports and are compliant with the structure and ideals of dominant society by “accommodating themselves to accepted standards of behavior and striving to fulfill socially approved roles” (p.

Students who read this novel will receive the impression that dropping out of high school, underage drinking, smoking, and even prostitution is ordinary. As premature adults, high schoolers feel this impulsing urge to conform to the standards of their peers, allowing them to be easily influenced into falsely discerning right from wrong. The social environment an individual is surrounded by has much to do with “who [they] are and how [they] act” (Bond, Michael). Approximately 50% of teens by the age of 15 have been pressured into consuming at least one alcohol beverage, while over 70% have been influenced by their peers to take up the life altering habit of smoking (Peer Pressure Statistics). Teenagers feel weak and belittled if they do not comply to the inadmissible standards of their peers.

Getting dressed each morning for school, I slip on my blazer, tighten my leather Oxfords, and pick a pair of glasses that match my outfit. Just a block away from my house, my town's high school is a two-minute walk to my left. However, I turn right and begin my hour-long commute to St. Peter's Prep. On my way to the bus stop, I always run into my childhood friends as we go in different directions. I wonder, “Why is my life so different from theirs? Do they think I'm pretentious, going to a prep school?” I don't live in a dystopian town where gunshots go off every day. However, many of my friends just don't care about school and use alcohol, drugs or sex to escape from their socioeconomic realities; the majority of my town is low-income and Latino.

A boy named Ricky is a freshman in high school, who worked hard to keep a C average in grades. Since he kept his grades up, he was able to keep himself involved in the school 's wrestling team. A shortage in the school budget led to some programs being cut and one of them is the school 's wrestling team, which Ricky plays for. Now since Ricky will not be spending his extra leisure time practicing or going to games, he is involved in activities outside of school that are not structured and educational, which kids should not be involved in. He is spending time outside of a corner store with friends which is bad for the business for that corner store. With kids hanging outside just to “hang” shows costumers a bad environment to enter, so they turn away from that business. Appearance is everything to businesses and if you have a crowd outside people maybe to scared to enter. The noise from the kids talking, yelling, and having multiple conversations amongst friends can be bad for business also, which brings complains of loud noises. For little kids of this age is a scary thing because they are around grown adults that are up to no good hanging out at corner stores also. These are unsafe environments for these kids. Gang activities are present, crimes are being committed, and no adult role models are present. All these different social problems are affecting Ricky by him not having any after school program to spend his leisure time at. With a group of kids hanging out they can

These teenagers that society considers “burnouts” are forced to live with the stigma of failure throughout their teenage and adult lives. They are teenagers trapped in this toxic cycle of working dead-end jobs and killing their bodies with drugs and alcohol. Although, what is the most devastating aspect about this horrific fate for teenage “losers”? They are not the ones creating this life for themselves. Society and its institutions construct the anomie for these teenagers. Government officials and teachers and parents are denying these children assistance to escape their “druggie” lifestyle. According to this group in society, these teenagers are unable to follow the social norms and work cohesively with their communities. These “burnouts”

A primary group is defined as a small social group whose members share personal and lasting relationships. People in primary groups spend a lot of time together and engage in various activities. The members of a primary group know each other very well, care about one another, and tend to view each other as being unique and irreplaceable. A primary group is often the first group we experience in life and helps shape our attitudes, behavior, and social identity.

Chris Colfer once stated, “Don’t let small town life make your life small.” Living in a small town such as Sullivan, Illinois most certainly has it’s perks; however, this small town has several more downsides to it than meets the eye. Growing up in a town with roughly four thousand people, it is difficult to picture a life full of excitement, adventures, and opportunities that can be easily found in cities; therefore, boredom is a common struggle almost every teenager faces. One might ask what the big deal is, but they often fail to look deeply into what such boredom has led to. Drugs and alcohol. It’s as simple as that. Small towns often fail to think of the youth and how the lack of entertainment provided can greatly affect teenagers’ lives. So, teenagers often turn to the only thing that is not necessarily healthy for them, but they turn to what seems “fun” or “cool” to them and their friends. Although not every small-town teenager abuses drugs or alcohol, it is clear that there is a problem with the majority of the teens in Sullivan, Illinois that could be prevented or reversed if there were more entertainment opportunities provided.