The Violence Of Being Human

Joe Sacco’s graphic novel, Palestine, deals with the repercussions of the first intifada in Israel/Palestine/the Holy Land. The story follows the author through the many refugee camps and towns around Palestine as he tries to gather information, stories, and pictures to construct his graphic novel. While the book is enjoyable at a face level, there are many underlying themes conveyed throughout its illustrated pages and written text.

The three stages of violence. According to the article, The Cycle of Domestic violence, there are three stages of violence. They are defined as the tension-building stage, the explosive stage, and the honeymoon stage (Domestic Violence Roundtable, 2008).

What has America come to? Although the articles, “We’re No.1(1)!” written by Thomas Friedman, and the article “Violence is Who We Are,” by Steven Crichley, have different overall subjects, they have a similar arguments. The world isn’t as great as it used to be, we are lacking good leadership, and we happily invite wrong doings into our lives.

According to Ann Marie Paulin in “Cruelty, Civility and Other Weighty Matters”, the mass media are discriminating against overweight people, which creates a society where being fat is looked down upon. Paulin argues that, “the media are notorious for getting things less than accurate” (243), therefore we shouldn’t believe how they depict fat people on tv, magazines and other media sources. The author believes that not all overweight people are like, how the media portrays them, but rather their lifestyle is influenced by the culture we live in. She claimed that, “Sugary or fatty foods are often available in grab and go packages that are so much easier to take to work or eat in the car than making a healthy snack” (245). She believe there are evidence to show that humans are naturally attracted to unhealthy foods, but society continue to manufacture them to make people eat more (243-249). I agree with Paulin about how the media need to stop fat shaming because it’s not only making people feel bad, but it is promoting obesity.

You’re driving with your girlfriend and child, on your way home after a long day. You suddenly get pulled over by a cop. You do as the cop says, in addition, you decide it’s not best to argue back. You speak calmly and do as the cop says, yet they are afraid of you and think you will try something horrific. As soon as you’re about to show them your license, it is suddenly too late. You are shot and are no longer alive. It took 40 seconds for an ordinary traffic stop to turn deadly. This occurred to a man named Philando Castile. He was fatally shot by a cop when he was reaching for his license. Philando Castile informed him beforehand that he legally had a firearm in his car before they decide to shoot or arrest him. However, the cop said that he

I have chosen to discuss the culture of violence in America and how it relates to gun control. It seems we cannot turn on the television, computer or smart phone without reading about gun violence throughout the country. I believe America’s love affair with violence has contributed to an increase in violent crimes. Having said that, there are several incidences in the news where possessing a gun has proven to be helpful in keeping homeowners safe and alive. In one case, a son was at home during a home invasion and used his gun to prevent the attack. This incident happened in Wagoner County, Oklahoma. Three teens dressed in black, wearing masks and gloves, broke into a residence. Authorities arrived to find two of the intruders shot to death in the home, one suspect was found dead in the driveway, and later an additional accomplice turned herself in to the authorities (Wire). Also, there is the case in which a 73-year-old man stopped a home robbery because he had a gun and shot the intruder. The elderly man reported being robbed several times that year, likely contributing to his perceived need to arm himself.

emotionally, and sexually abused;consequently, my children witnessed a significant amount of the violence. My children at times were abused for defending me. I knew

“POTENTIAL FOR MAN’S INHUMANITY TO MAN” The novel “Night” shows that there is great inhumanity and cruelty displayed from this personal journey of Elie Wiesel. The Nazi are the ringleaders behind it all gradually making the Jews feel like nothing and only pawns for work. The Germans strip the Jews to nothing and take away everything close to them, separation from loved ones, isolation, transportation and the ruthless, cold actions towards them in the camps such as starvation, selections of the fittest and the struggle of survival becomes essential for their own self. However there are humane acts within the book which help Elie overcome some struggles and survive the brutality of the camps and war.

Over the last thirty years, significant scholars of American (particularly southern) lynching such as George C. Wright, W. Fitzhugh Brundage, Stewart E. Tolnay and E. M. Beck, Christopher Waldrep, William D. Carrigan, Amy Louise Wood, and Manfred Berg have written at length about the social structure and cultural context of the collective violence, much of it racially motivated, that plagued the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century United States. With the exception of Wright's and Waldrep's work, lynching scholarship (including my own) has tended to focus more on the structure and context of lynching violence than on its impact on African American communities. Focusing on the violence itself as well as those who perpetrated it, scholars

The understanding of the concept of social of construction is in accepting that it is the social process of construction meaning to the things around us. We constructed meaning to those things around us through language and categorizing the world. For example, gender is a social construct in which we created two categories or two genders, male and female. We are put into one of these categories when we are born. Another example could be race, we are again, put into categories based off of our skin color. This social construct is what separates us further as a human from others alike. So what does it mean to say human violence is socially constructed? In understanding this we have to look at other words or language that have been created. Such as the world evil, or the word power. In knowing how these meanings are related to violence we can understand more what classifies as violence and even perhaps, what causes it.

Joe Sacco's graphic novel, Palestine, deals with the repercussions of the first intifada in Israel/Palestine/the Holy Land. The story follows the author through the many refugee camps and towns around Palestine as he tries to gather information, stories, and pictures to construct his graphic novel. While the book is enjoyable at a face level, there are many underlying themes conveyed throughout its illustrated pages and written text.

The artists and creators of violence in various forms of media have the ability to shape how people perceive violence as an art. While most people that art is used as a form of aestheticism, often the creators attempt to send a message through their work. Maggie Nelson explains in

Victimless “Man shot in drive by shooting..” “Mother arrested for domestic abuse..” “Teen killed himself because of bullying..” These are just a handful of the things that we hear almost everyday. While not many people like to admit it, violence is everywhere.

In conclusion, religious sacrifices do not decrease violence in society, but rather increases or enhances the violent tendencies humans may have within society itself. If violence is condoned or allowed in society, how can there be any regulation or order to establish what violence is right and what is wrong? If violence, even in the form of religious sacrifices, is allowed, the need or want for individuals to continue these violent actions will be enhanced as well. Despite what Girard had detailed in Violence and the Sacred, my stance falls on the notion that is one is able to exercise violence for one instance and be allowed to, there is nothing to stop that individual from continuing. Rather than be a relief or a means to release one’s violent

The term violence brings to memory an image of physical or emotional assault on a person. In most circumstances, the person affected due to violence is aware that a violent action has been performed on that person. There is another form of violence where the affected individual, in most cases are unaware of the violence inflicted upon them. These types of violence are termed as structural violence. Structural violence is a form of invisible violence setup by a well-defined system, to limit an individual’s development to his full potential, by using legal, political, social or cultural traditions (Winter and Leighton, 1).