Jonas Givens Jr. is the wise, loving, and caring 84-year-old man who gave me an intriguing look as to what life was like as a child in the 1930’s through being an elderly man in 2015. He is also my last living grandparent and this interview gave me the perfect opportunity to learn more about him and his life. I’ve always been particularly interested in how our childhood and young adult lives differed considering the fact that he always makes it a point to tell me how spoiled the world has me, and how lazy the younger generations are because we have so much technology. Due to him living in South Carolina, I usually communicate with him by calling his house phone since he refuses to buy a cell phone, but for this specific interview I asked …show more content…
He immediately laughed at this one and took a long deep breath. As stated earlier, he always refers to younger generations as spoiled rotten, rude and lazy. He explained how back when he was a teenager that you could not even think to talk back to your parents without expecting a spanking. “Boy, I tell you, if I could treat some of you youngsters how I would have been treated if I didn’t say yes ma’am or yes sir, or even back sassed an adult, you kids would be in for some big trouble. Unfortunately for me, it’s called child abuse now and I’m too old to go to jail.” It was also interesting to hear him talk about how self-reliant teens were back in the 1940’s. One of his biggest pet peeves about the youth today is that we are not very physically active. Back in the 1940’s youth had to create their own fun outside in the sun and didn’t spend most of their day watching television or on their phones. Furthermore, compared to how teens today rely on smartphones and internet to communicate, teens in the 1940’s had very limited access to house phones and relied mainly on handwritten letters and face-to-face conversation. This initiated him to his next point that their face-to-face conversations obviously meant that they had to meet up with an individual. He uttered, “There was no such thing as whining to Mama and Daddy to drop us off somewhere or to use their car. There were no goober [referring to Uber] cars and for heaven’s sake, I’d never thought I’d live to see the day where you youngsters were too lazy to even walk so you use those electric scooter things now” [referring to the newly introduced hoverboards]. I’m sure my grandfather could go on all day about how lazy and rude teens are nowadays. On the contrary, he did say that one similarity between the two is that teens are still very focused on having an amusing, wild time and
The American dream, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is a happy way of living that is thought of by many Americans as something that can be achieved by anyone in the U.S. especially by working hard and becoming successful. The passage sees Richard Rodriguez describing a past Christmas experience. Rodriguez uses language and details about his siblings, parents, and himself to suggest the American dream of material success. Rodriguez comments on the American dream of material success using language and details about his siblings. Rodriguez immediately begins by letting the reader know that his two sisters “are business executives.”
A Rhetorical analysis of “Generation Velcro” In “Generation Velcro,” Dorothy Woodend discusses the lack of basic skills and knowledge that is being passed down from generation to generation, and how this could be a fundamental problem for both generation Y and the future of planet earth. Woodend, setting the tone for her article, asks the question, “[i]s this generation heading into a coming dark age with little more than the ability to update their Facebook statuses and watch YouTube, all with laces untied?” (par. 7). She contends that “[t]he inability to concentrate in a world of competing bits of information and constant multitasking have led to brains that can no longer keep up,” implying that this problem of concentration is inhibiting this newest generation’s ability to learn the skills necessary to sustain our world properly (par. 12).
Final Paper The person I chose to interview for this final paper was my mother, Peggy. I am going to start with providing a brief social history on her. Peggy was born on October 29, 1940 to my grandparents, Marie and John. She is the second of six children, and was raised in Philadelphia.
With the help of the older generation, such as the baby boomers, millennials have the opportunity to experience that “Joy in looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift” Albert Einstein. In David Armand’s short story “Duck Hunter” one of the main characters, Lonnie, is emotionally estranged from his father. One can assume that it is because of the technology that his generation so centered on. The father, Jim, takes his son duck hunting to create a better connection with not only himself but nature as well. At the end of the short story it reads “Exasperated, Lonnie decides to leave the painting like this until he returns next year to hunt ducks with his father”.
The life of a Teenager of this society tends to be kept and shown to be over protected by the Olds. Honestly, I’ve notice from people around me who parents are strict while being wily about everything they should not be exploiting. On the other hand, the Teenagers are being safeguarded because the story states “The Olds like to say its because we are children” (Link 674), that statement shows Teenagers somewhat despises hard they are looked down on, but they do not understand that the Olds just care and love hard, when it comes to their children. In addition, the Teenagers are viewed in the society as being irresponsible; They show this with the incidents and recreations everyone be involved in; For example, “Plus, the Olds got mad about one of the chairs […] The unicorn broke the back to kindling”
What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff--I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them” (186). As he explained, he wanted to help children to don’t lose their pureness. As a second example, after he talked a child, he said “Thanks a lot.” (128) before he went on, which is not the way he talks normally. He talks with children in the nice way.
“You were born into a society which spelled out with brutal clarity, and in as many ways as possible, that you were a worthless human being. You were not expected to aspire to excellence”. His letter also discussed the idea of discovering one's self not through the sentiments of others, but rather through the conclusions of oneself. I feel like he is not just cautioning his nephew, but the black community in general of such society. I believe that his letter was a plea to the black community to “accept the whites with love” for “they are, in effect, still trapped in a history which they do not understand”, while in the same token, not giving in to their stereotypes of black identity like his father did.
It really has not changed much since then. This cycle seems to repeat itself over and over. According to Brake, “Young people have always suffered from the envious criticism of their elders” (1). Teenagers in the 1950s received just as much criticism than teens today. The idea that teenyboppers in the 1950s went crazy
Parents of this era feel more at ease because their child is simply one phone call away. Since talking to our parents multiple times a day is seen as normal, Turkle fears that that amount of connectivity is preventing teens from maturing and gaining their own sense of
This quote begins the plot by creating the exposition. The narrator or speaker does this by explaining the setting of the Younger household, telling the audience which rooms are where and that they have lived in that space for many years. The narrator also gives personification to the objects such as the furniture around the house which makes them feel alive in a way. The time and place is also given which is the period after World War II in Chicago which may explain certain tones and language that the characters may use. Moreover, by telling the audience that many people live in the Younger household, other than themselves, and that they all share rooms or that their son sleeps in the living room, the audience can infer that they are not very
On the other hand, teenagers ought to escape the confines of bland jobs and occupations, and open themselves up to a new world of opportunities and possibilities. The struggle of man, as adolescent, is epitomized in the final quote from Sammy: “my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter”
The omnipresence of the smartphone affects adolescents in every section of the United States, regardless of social class and ethnic background. Jean Twenge established ethos when he stated,“he had been studying generational differences for 25 years and that he started when was a 22 year old doctoral student in psychology”(2). Since he has been studying different generations for many years he knows
(Cummings).For example, ”"What is it, little girl?" he said. "Don't go walking about like that you'll get cold."” (Gilman 652). He also treats her as if she can not make her own decisions.
My grandfather’s responses don’t change the way I think of him. I was surprised when he said that retirement was his favorite stage of life just because he has told me about how much fun he had when was in high school. His responses have sorta changed how I want to live my life. He never gives up on anything and that inspired me to do so! It also gave me the interpretation that just because something might not work out, there is other doors open for
I think paragraph 2 shows a brief preview of what many things he had to endure, but at the time neglecting his self respect to others. It shows that while growing up, many things would affect a person even now or would feel insulted, but it goes to show how much influence society has on civilians. He said that at the age of ten he went to a private country club pool and white parents grab and snatch their kids in