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Essay on people are shaped by environment

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People are Shaped by Their Environment

For a long time, people have argued over whether an individuals behavior is controlled solely by their environment. Their experiences, and the people they grow up with shape the way they behave as people. People teach others ways of acting and thinking that are kept for the rest of their lives. In Mark Twain's, Pudd'nhead Wilson, the characters live in a society that criticizes the way they live their daily lives. The town's expectations, opinions and values affect their personalities. For these reasons, environment is the driving force shaping the way individuals live.
Chambers, who grows up in an environment of discrimination and abuse, …show more content…

Ashamed to be in the same room with the people that treated him unfairly when he was considered "black" Chambers refuses to come into acquaintance with the whites. Chambers has become so insecure about his lifestyle as a slave, he prefers to be alone rather than be exposed to further discrimination. Chambers's environment causes him to lack confidence and security of himself.
Roxy, although only one sixteenth black, is shaped by the slave system, which defines her as a black, slave woman. For example, although the slave system labels Roxy as black, "To all intents and purposes Roxy was as white as anybody, but the one sixteenth of her which was black outvoted the other fifteen parts and made her a Negro. She was a slave, and salable as such."(29) The Dawson's Landing community base their treatment toward Roxy on the fact that she has a little portion of black ancestry in her, without recognizing her as a "whole." By taking away her freedoms as an individual, Roxy becomes less in control of her life. In addition, not only does the slave system label Roxy, but also change her ways of acting because, "She has an easy, independent carriage-when she was among her own caste-and a high and "sassy"

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