Rumspringa: Role Conflict Within The Amish Youth Community Essay

The Amish is a group of traditionalist Christians that rely on simple living, plain dress and refuse to adapt to modern technology. The history of the Amish started in Switzerland in 1693 led by Jakob Amman. Today majority of the traditional descendants of the Amish live in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

The figures that were shown to the prisoner in the cave could be viewed as idols praised by the prisoners and puppeteers. Religion can be viewed by some as a cave. Being kept in the dark of there religion and forced never to see the light. Some religions brain wash there followers to see things only there way. If you don’t see, act or think how there religion views you should be. they may kill you. The Amish religion can be view like the prisoners in the cave. They are taught from a small age that God is all you need and the everyday life most Americans live is a blasphemy of God. They live a simple life most have no electrical devices and choose to dress modestly and in plain colored clothing. Some Amish travel to towns for supplies but most tend to grow everything there self. Children are shielded from the outside world until there teenage years when they participate in rumspringa. This event is where teenagers are given the choice to stay within the Amish culture or they choose to be an outsider. In summary the Amish are similar to the prisoners in the cave being told what to do and how to act there whole life until the day they can see the world and make their own choices. One important note most Amish teenagers choose to stay within the Amish community. Cults are similar to the Allegory of the cave. Members are kept in the dark, from what

her household she resorts to outside sources, making herself a victim to boys, which creates a

For centuries, teenagers have fought with their parents over the amount of freedom they should have. Parents always fight to reel in their child’s freedom, while teens argue that they need more privileges. While parents certainly have an argument in protecting their kids from the big, scary world, ultimately teenagers need to be exposed to the dangers of everyday life in order to prepare them for entering it on their own. If they have no real-life experience, they cannot be expected to handle it well when they leave their parents’ houses. In order to teach kids responsibility and life skills, kids should be allowed freedom to work and be out on their own, but have certain restrictions on a case-to-case basis in terms of curfews and household obligations.

inconsistency in her beliefs. Majorly, nearing the end of her life, she begins to regret all her deeds of which

Jeannette’s self-reliant behavior is frequently shown through her refusal of help from others. On one trip to retrieve her father from a bar, Jeannette’s father is so drunk that he can no longer walk. Another man offers to drive them home, and

Adolescents believe they much always be available and parents believe this too. This type of lifestyle is

Perhaps the most culturally diverse nation on the globe, the United States is home to a dominant Anglo-American Protestant culture intermixed and alongside a host of sub-cultures that live and thrive on US soil. Among these cultures exists an array of distinct form of living all who boast an identity specific to only that select group. These subcultures exist in a couple different forms; convergent subcultures and persistent subcultures. First, convergent subcultures intend toward assimilation with the dominant society through various tactics to include: residential clustering, adherence to the language, dress, and cultural norms of their native land (Parrillo, 42). Contrarily, some cultures simply do not assimilate. In these cases, persistent subcultures adhere as much as possible to their own way of life and resist absorption into the dominant culture (Parrillo, 43). Among these persistent subcultures within the US are the Amish. The Amish are a sect of the Christian faith whose members have roots in twenty-two states across the

“We were always doing the skedaddle, usually in the middle of the night… We moved around like nomads”(Walls 19). Jeannette was never able to settle down. They were always moving, always in a rush and could never really do things like normal families. She ended up not getting a proper education as they never stayed in a town long enough to really learn something just setting her up for failure. Her family was overall just crazy, setting her up to be the same and putting her into the same mess as her parents. She is given one of the hardest child situations to overcome. “Dad was driving and smoking with one hand and holding a brown bottle of beer with the other”. Her parents were terrible examples to grow up with as they had some terrible habits. Dad was an alcoholic and affected the family's life completely as it took over his actions. Her parents were giving her this legacy of having a horrific lifestyle and means of overcoming problems that most people would think she'd end up an alcoholic one day too, but she was able to overcome those odds. She was able to end her family's legacy for her children as she grew up and made better decisions than her parents. Walls’ life completely negates Gladwell’s theory of cultural

For example, throughout her childhood she never had a truly stable home. Her family was constantly moving from place to place around the country, and as her father said, “doing the skedaddle” whenever inconveniences arose, like debt collectors catching up to them or getting into trouble with the law. Second, her father always spent the majority of their money on beer and other alcoholic beverages at bars, and they frequently had no food to eat and were starving. The children often had to fend for themselves to find food when they were hungry without the assistance of their parents. Jeannette often subdued her and her siblings’ difficulties by taking charge of herself and her siblings to acquire food and by standing up for herself whenever it was necessary. For example, she stood up for herself whenever her mother was being selfish and pompous. Her mother would hide snacks and eat them secretly without sharing, and she would also spend days sobbing and complaining about how she had to do everything. During those times, Jeannette often took charge and directly criticized her mother about not doing her job. After her dad whipped her, Jeannette vowed to escape Welch for good and began saving up money to leave and move away. As a result of her struggles, over the years Jeannette had become very hard-working and diligent at whatever work she did. This lead her to become very successful in the future. She

Jeannette Walls tells a very interesting story in The Glass Castle; few people get the chance to experience such a unique childhood. Jeannette’s father and mother are unlike traditional parents. Her father puts his children in harm’s way and justifies it by claiming that it’s a learning experience and her mother fails to provide comfort because she is preoccupied over her own goals. As an innocent child, Jeannette initially does not mind living such a childhood. In fact she admires her parents, especially her father, despite his frequent drunken outbursts. However, as Jeannette ages, she finds herself disapproving of her father’s way of

Teens also feel that social media and texting is outside the law so they look past bullying, sexting, and other illegal acts as against the law. If they are allowed to consent to sex underage, many will not understand because they are considerably the

This name was given to the Amish that branched off from the Old Order in the 1960s. The New Order Amish settlements are found exclusively in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Although they are very similar to the Old Order, they use new farming technologies like the tractor and include the use of telephones and electricity in their homes. The New Order Amish perform missions work abroad, prohibit the use of alcohol and tobacco, occasionally travel by airplane, have more elaborate buggies, hold formal Bible meetings, and a lower percentage of the New Order church youth join the church ("Amish America," 2010). On a humorous note, the New Order Amish lean toward a clean courtship between the youth breaking away from the Old Order tradition of bundling where a courting couple lay down together fully clothed

materialism. A dim cognizance of these traits lead her to blame herself for her father’s death. “I killed

Today, most teens don’t require