Society assumes someone is poor if someone wears old, ripped clothing. If someone wears gold chains, lots of jewelry, and fancy brands, people believe they’re rich. These are just a few examples of how your outward identity decides how others perceive you. In the novel, The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton shares a story about 2 social groups who believe they’re opposite, but in reality, aren't so different. The Outsiders teaches readers about identity, and reveals that one shouldn’t assume how one is before getting to know one. An individual's outward identity does determine how society judges them because people often think the social group one belongs to correlates with the way one acts and is supported through the character Cherry.
Cherry’s outward identity does determine how society judges them because society often assumes the social group one associates with pairs with one's personality. Ponyboy watched Cherry stick up to Dally: “ I’d seen her before she was a cheerleader at our school. I’d always thought she was stuck up” (Hinton 21). This shows because Cherry associates with cheerleaders Ponyboy assumed she was stuck up like some other cheerleaders. Cherry’s identity impacts her by having people assume things she's not because other people in the social groups she is in act stuck up, so people think she is also stuck up. Cherry’s outward
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When Ponyboy was talking with Cherry, he realized, “ Maybe we weren’t so different. We saw the same sunset” (Hinton 41). Although they believe Ponyboy took the time to get to know Cherry, it is understood that though he got to know her, the two groups have been programmed to realize they are different and that not all of society will change. While there can be other ideas regarding Cherry’s outward identity, it appears it may determine how society judges
Brent May 31, 2023 5a The Greasers: A Band of Brothers Identity is the notion of how one perceives their own-self as well as how they believe others perceive them; whether good or bad identity is an important part of life and acceptance of that identity is crucial to find happiness. Ponyoby Curtis from the novel The Outsiders by S.E Hinton has a hard time deciding which identity he finds more important; whether it's his family or his academic standards, or his gang and their stereotypes. In the end however, Ponyboy realizes that his group identity is more important to him than how he thinks of himself. To begin, Ponyboy's self-identity constructs his personality and his emotions, and how others view him.
One important thing Cherry says in the book is how things are bad all over from the socs to the greasers. Cherry mentions this to ponyboy to try to explain to him that it is tough living up to this stereotype and it is not just hard for the greasers it is the same for the socs. To add on when Cherry is talking to ponyboy about dally she says “I could fall in love with Dallas Winston,” she said. “I hope I never see him again or I will.” I find this very interesting because Even though she obeys the rules of being a Soc, she finds herself drawn to crude, violent guys like Dallas Winston.
The writer’s use of anecdotes, imagery, irony, and considerate syntax, portrays an incident in his life when he was said to be a person that didn’t exist. Through this usage, the reader infers that the essay creates relatable incidents to the way society identifies individuals, that leads to the formation of individualist, specified personas. Society tends to stereotype individuals depending on substantial exteriors, which leads the individual to construct an altered persona depending on the society surrounding; such as family, strangers, teachers, etc. Somewhere along our life span, we have been “labeled” or classified as people we truly aren’t
Everyone wants to fit in either in school or at work and in the short essay “White Lies”, Erin Murphy discusses how a little girl is being bullied at school and what she does to prevent it. In the fourth paragraph it states, “ All of this changed in mid-October when Connie’s father got a job at a candy factory, news Connie announced tentatively one rainy day during indoor recess” (Paragraph four). Because Connie was an albino she was viewed differently in everyone’s eyes. She decided to announce to everyone that her father worked in a candy factory, therefore everyone would like her. When the news came out everyone started to like Connie because she bought everyone free candy.
Throughout society, family plays a big part in the labeling process of youth. Ricky and Doughboy have different fathers. Doughboy’s dad is known to be lazy and uninspired, which is what Doughboy’s lifestyle has become. Brenda doesn’t look at Doughboy like the way she looks at Ricky. She sees Ricky as her ticket out of South Central.
The novel The Outsiders By SE Hinton , covers the theme of people are often more complex than they first appear. This theme is still relevant today because people still are making assumptions about people when they first meet rather than getting to know them further. The Outsiders is a story about the rivalry of the Greasers and Socs and how it led to the destructiveness of physical and mental well being. Dally,who is first viewed as a bloodthirsty and cruel person because of his past, but after Johnny’s death he is seen as the member who shows too much emotion. Darry, Ponyboy’s oldest brother, who is seen as a harsh and overworked boy who is trying to raise his brothers is discovered to be caring and having to be emotionless for his family.
Analogous to Connie’s personality, this setting is split into two opposite places: Connie’s house, a place where Connie feels trapped and lost and suffers from insecurity, low self-esteem, and a general feeling of being unloved, and the nearby town, where she feels content and secure and gains a sense of confidence and power. Constantly being exposed to these two sharply contrasting environments leads Connie to develop an unstable identity, one which is always changing to match her surroundings, reflecting both the characteristics that others attribute to her and the atmosphere of the setting. Therefore, it can be argued that our own identity is not something that we are born with and that remains constant, but instead is something that acts like a mirror, only a reflection of what others see in us and the influences of our own
The other point of this paper is how society changes you. If you are rich and you don’t look like it you wear off brand clothes then society will change you when you get with the right group. If you stay with the group of friends that you have been with then you will be fine. If you want to let society change you then go ahead but always remember if you judge someone without getting to know them then you are dead to
Lulu Asselstine Mrs. Olsen LA 8 5 November, 2017 Stereotypes and Perspectives When looking at a bunch of bananas in a grocery store, people tend to choose the perfect spotless bananas, since stereotypically food that is perfect looking, with no flaws, taste better. However, people soon realize that when you start to eat bananas that have more spots and are imperfect they turn out to be sweeter and better. This connects to stereotypes because people who follow stereotyped will always eat the perfect bananas; however, people who choose to look through another perspective can realize that the imperfect bananas are better. This connects to The Outsiders because Ponyboy realizes this after he talks with two Socs, kids from a rival group named Randy and Cherry. In The Outsiders, S.E Hinton presents the idea that teenagers can break through stereotypes if they look at life through another perspective; as shown in the book when Ponyboy starts to talk to Cherry and Randy and realizes the stereotypes about them are false.
Conforming to social stereotypes and expectations limits one's individuality. As the outsiders oppose conformity challenges through Ponyboy
In the short story “Charles” by Shirly Jackson, Laurie invents a persona named Charles as a front to tell his parents about his days at school without getting in trouble for acting out. However, Laurie also exaggerates the stories about his acting out at school as he views that he has grown out of being his mother’s “… sweetvoiced nursery-school tot …” and is now a “… swaggering character …” (_____,____). This change in character is displayed in Laurie’s behavior while at home throughout the story as Laurie acts fresh (insolently or without respect) to his parents and surroundings displaying his “… swaggering character…” while at home. Upon being asked about his day at school multiple times, Laurie creates the persona of Charles who displays
The environment in which an individual grows up in can affect life greatly. Our surroundings influence one’s personality, self-expression, and individuality, otherwise known as identity. Finding one’s true self is the most grueling stage of life and expectations of family and society make the process even harder. One’s true identity can sometimes clash with hopes of others, thus breaking tradition and/or family ties. Pressure to change will always be present, but staying true to uniqueness will prevail.
How others see you is influenced by material, social, and physical constraints. This causes a tension between how much control you have in constructing your own identity and how much control or constraint is exercised over you. How we see ourselves and how others see us differ in many ways, but is an important factor of our identity. “A Lesson Before Dying”,
They want to fit in to a different group, but are refused because of society’s interpretation of who they should be. A crucial example is when Benjamin says, “I forget that a society wedded to racial constructs constantly forces me to explain my very existence” (Hwang). Benjamin defines his identity through the parents who adopted him, but Ronnie thinks of identity as something to be made. He defines race by genetics instead of association, but he shows he does not think race has anything to do with personal identity when he says, “Sure, I am Chinese. But folks like you act like that means something.
For instance, Connie states, “sometimes they did go shopping or to a movie, but sometimes they went across the highway, ducking fast across the busy road, to a drive-in restaurant where older kids hung out (665).” By hanging out at a restaurant surrounded by older kids, Connie attempts to fit in by molding her identity around how she believes she should act around them. Therefore, Connie’s differentiation of self is superficially based off of her observations of how her peers