Social inequality has been present throughout the ages, like a shadow, taking on notorious forms that can ravage a nation. Social inequality is a serious matter, and it is important to bring it out from the shadows and into the spotlight of the world due to the rising discrimination and persecution among American teenagers. It is impossible to end inequality all together, nonetheless authors have a platform to impact readers on social matters and can use the different genres of literature as a proactive tool to slowly pick away reader by reader and change their views on the topic of tolerance and acceptance. First off, although many people may want to believe social inequality is behind us, it is still on the rise, with American teens as …show more content…
Many Americans live in fear from that one person who takes there anger and fear out on them physically or mentally. A bully is somebody who puts themselves above somebody else, as if they are better than everyone. In The Outsider, the author S.E Hinton paints a picture of bullying right from the start. The book took place in the 60s and contains Greasers and Soc’s, two gangs that constantly battle it out. With the Soc’s always looking for a fight, Greasers have to watch over their shoulder and travel together. The Soc’s are constantly beating up on the Greasers, for example “Five Soc’s were coming straight at us, and from the way they were staggering I figured they were reeling pickled. They scared me. A cool deadly bluff could sometimes shake them off, but not if they outnumbered you five to two and were drunk. Johnny’s hand went to his back pocket and I remembered the switchblade. I wished for that broken bottle. I’d sure show them I could use it if they had to. Johnny was scared to death”(Hinton). S.E Hinton is trying to relate the Greasers life to many Americans who face the same problem in
The socs were bullies. If they saw a greaser alone they would gang up on
The Outsiders is a story regarding the privation and accomplishments experienced by the Greasers and the Socs, two rival gangs living in the inner city in the early 1960’s. The novel The Outsiders is about two groups of teenagers of bitter rivalry which was due to socio-economic differences.The Outsiders takes us through a journey of violence, struggle and death. It examines the life of a recently orphaned young man born into poverty confronted with the prejudices that he could not change. The novel tells the story of Ponyboy Curtis and his conflicts between the lower and the upper class youths and struggles and with the right and wrong in a society in which he considers himself an outsider. The society is divided in two groups Greasers and Socs, ‘Greasers’ are those who are from East side and belongs to a poor section of the society and ‘Socs’ a short word for society used in the novel, means those who are from West side and belongs to a richer section of a society. The greasers and Socs also have somethings in common like Cherry Valance, a member of Socs, and Ponyboy Curtis, a geaser discuss their love for literature, for popular music, and sunsets. A view of honorable action appears throughout the novel, which works as an important element of the geasers behavioral code.
“‘Need a haircut greaser’ The tall medium-sized blond pulled a knife out of his back pocket and flipped the blade open.”(pg.5). The Greasers had to always deal with the Socs trying to jump them. The Socs tries to even threatened them by using deadly weapons. “They had caught him and one of them had a lot of rings on his hand...It wasn't just that they had beaten him half to death… they had scared him. They had threatened him with everything”(pg.33). They tried to kill the Greaser even he wasn't doing anything bad. The Greaser was going to die because of the Socs, he was beaten almost to death. The Socs always give the Greasers problem and they already have many
Social inequality is a situation where some members of the society enjoy different amounts of wealth prestige and power. The society has placed its members in rankings through unequal economics rewards and power. American society like all other nations has had its systems of socially stratifying its inhabitants. This began from the era of slavery where there was legalized inequality and human ownership among other forms. Zinn portrays this inequality even up to the present where racism acts continue to occur as indicated by the various killings carried out by the police to the black young men with an excuse that they were caught in an act of crime. In the present society, the social class system has dominated the American society. The upper class includes those who are extremely wealthy and they are few, the upper-middle class includes those who have affluent professions like the doctors and lawyers. The other group is the lower-middle class which includes the nurses and small business owners among others with less affluent professions. The others are the working class where most people lie and finally the lower class who are mostly dependants. According to Zinn, American children become conscious of their social class through
Literature is the window to realizing the negatives of society and how destructive certain norms can be. Readers are brought into a completely different story than their own, but by using similar issues in today’s world, the readers can actually learn from the story and its overall message. All writers write for a purpose, whether it’s for a new meaning to life, to live a different life than our own, or to impact others on an emotional level by teaching them to see the importance of the little things. As a reader, you search for pieces of literature that interest you whether you find the story like your own, or wish you lived the life in the story. By using issues in today’s within their works, authors are able to grab the reader's attention long enough for them to get across what they wanted to get across. Often in many works of literature, writers use societal issues as their basis for the work’s themes and symbols. By doing so, this allows the reader to question the morality behind social norms and how impactful certain ideals can be in people’s lives.
In today 's society, equality is a big deal, with many people still fighting for their rights. People all over the world are still being discriminated against, a topic that is not uncommon for a vast amount of dystopian novels. In fact, it 's a very common theme for multiple dystopian pieces. Scott Westerfeld 's Uglies, Joelle Charbonneau 's The Testing, Liam Hughes ' The Social Classes, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 's Harrison Bergeron, and Wes Ball 's interpretation of The Maze Runner all have social discrimination integrated into their story lines. Despite the many problems in dystopian societies, authors also present the classic hero that rises above those issues and works to rebuild their government or community. However, a hero isn 't just born, they 're made through a series of events such as problems with social class discrimination.
Looking at the article “Class Matters” by Peter Sacks, Social classes are divisions in society, which are based on social and economic status. People from a similar social class have a distinct level of power and wealth within a given community or country. The most common social groupings, based on status, are the upper, the middle, and the lower social classes. The precise considerations of determining these hierarchical social categories vary from time to time. Many researchers have come up with different perspectives as far as social stratification is concerned. According to Karl Marx, social stratification is a result of one's position in the hierarchy of factors of production. Therefore, social stratification is a manifestation of financial muscle within society further creating the divide within social groupings as seen through educational divides and inequalities that lie in many aspects of life.
How many of you know someone that has been a victim of bullying? or have been victims of a bully? Statistically schools students have a one in seven chance of being on the receiving end of a bullies rage (NBNBD). In the United States, there is an estimated 160,000 children miss school every day due to fear of attack or intimidation by other students (NEA), but what are the contributing factors in school violence? What and why do bullies to want to inflict pain on someone? We need to find the many sociological factors in a bully that causes them to do harm to others and contribute to violence in schools.
“1]. How does social inequality impact people of different nationalities [ethnicities & races], classes, and genders in society.”
There are many young aged kids and teens who experience bullying, some of them bullied for their appearance, some for their popularity status, and others surprisingly let themselves. However, it’s pretty doubtful anyone really knows why a kid would let themselves be bullied. Author Gary Soto developed a short story called “Fear” designating bullying with no specific theme but made to feel the anxiety or agitation of its presence of danger, pain, and evil. This author's breathtaking story is about a young 5th-grade boy named Frankie T. (F.T) with many things gone wrong in his family/life. Those things turned him to be a bully and later someone who would drown their own brother in a pool, and beat a woman with a lengthened pipe in a burglary years later. Frankie T. is an interesting character that can be better understood by examining his Character Traits, Contributing Factors, and his Motivations.
Imagine a young boy who has to watch behind his back in case a snotty rich kid was lurking in the streets wanting to beat up on little kids. “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton is full of differences so the reader can understand that people have different views than them. This book is a “call to action” because social class and violence issues are a big part of the world's problems 51 years ago and even today.
Have you ever read a very hard hitting and the phenomenal story about rival gangs and the effect it has on the lives of the people and the society. In The Outsiders, is a story of 14-year-old Ponyboy Curtis and his two older brothers, Soda and Darry. The boys are orphans and struggle to stick together in their lower-class neighborhood, known as the East Side. They and their friends are part of a gang of tough street boys called the Greasers. Even though other people might think you're unimportant and below them. You will always have your friends and family. In The Outsiders, we see the idea of the difference in the society based on the economic level of the characters, honor among the lawless and violence among the youth.
“The Outsiders” identifies the 60’s, illustrating the violence between groups, often involving a group’s social class. For instance, the violent tensions between the Socs and Greasers lead to Bob’s death, Johnny’s death, as well as many injuries throughout both gangs. The book “The Outsiders” is written by S.E. Hinton and is portrayed through the eyes of a high school student in Tulsa, OK where S.E. Hinton grew up. Hinton began writing “The Outsiders” in 1965 at the age of 17 and the book was finally published in 1967 when she was 19. The difference in perspective upon the society and social class creates issues throughout “The Outsiders” and since the Socs and Greasers assume the problems will be solved with violence, they take action.
In briefly evaluating the classical and modern explanations of social inequality, it is essential that we step outside the realm of our own lives, class position, and discard any assumptions we might have about the nature of inequality. This process of critical pedagogy allows us to view our world, not from our perspective, but from a wider, more critical analysis of inequality's nature. Also, it should be considered within this wider perspective that all theories of inequality have a class perspective, where the theorist, based on the position their theory takes, is making claims from (or for) a particular class (whether they want to or not). With this in mind, it seems that most of these theories come
and ethnicities. Many American’s have experienced some type of social inequality throughout their lifetime. America’s gaping inequality is seen