How My Sociological Imagination Changed My Life

Mary Romero's essay "Intersection of Biography and History: My Intellectual Journey" illustrates C. Wright Mill's concept of the Sociological Imagination in three aspects. First Romero is observing the girl in a detached fashion not letting the personal aspects cloud the Sociological Imagination. Then Romero connects personal problems to societal forces because Juanita problem was not she was not being treated fairly as the other kids in the household. She was the only one working with all the household chores while other kids where enjoying their life and giving her orders instead. One day Romero observed that the employer's younger son was giving order to Juanita and Juanita just stood there shocked and humiliated. Since she was a servant

Everyone comes from different backgrounds and people are often, at least partially, a product of the environment they were raised in. Some of the factors that can influence individuals as they are being raised include the family’s economic status, political affiliation, and religious beliefs. For me, one strong influence on my childhood and life now is being raised in a family of devout Mormons. While I am no longer associated or a member of the Mormon Church the differences in culture still left long lasting impressions on my life. Being raised as a member of the Mormon Church and later leaving the religion influenced the way I think, specifically in regards to the differences of other peoples and cultures and the way that I act in my life.

The sociological imagination challenges some one to see how an individual 's biography is shaped by the larger social contexts of the moment in history. C. Wright Mills defined sociological imagination as "the vivid awareness of the relationship between personal experience and the wider society". (Sociological Imagination) This paper will discuss how my life experience has been shaped by the broader society that I lived in, and by my social position in society. An example of an analysis is represented in Honky, in which sociologist Dalton Conley contextualizes his own life experiences that focused on race and class as his powerful forces that shaped his childhood and educational attainment in comparison to his society. However my major forces

People’s view of the world is based upon their personal experiences and not their culture. “Mira and I differ, however, in the ways in which we hope to interact with the country that we have chosen to live in.” (Two Ways To Belong In America by Bharati Mukherjee) The fact that even though Mira and Bharati were raised the same and they still had different beliefs and life paths to follow proves that culture doesn’t always affect future beliefs. The way you were raised doesn’t affect your cultural identity, views and future as much as experiences you go through. Two people could be raised the same, but end up different based on their experiences throughout their lives.

The sociological imagination refers to the individual men and women that identify society as the source of the issues or obstacles they face in life, as well as the source of the achievements they accomplish. Two issues I have faced in my lifetime are linked to unemployment and marriage, which C. Wright Mills further discusses in his book titled The Sociological Imagination.

During my lifetime, Gallop polls specify that Americans, overwhelmingly, trust the government “only some of the time, with the exception of the time immediately following 9/11. I, personally, became aware of the distrust by my own family during the 2008 economic fallout of the middle class. It was during this time, I came to the realization that the government was responsible for much of the hardships experienced by my family. We witnessed the demolition of the middle class, the bailout of the banks, inflation, the wars, the political scandals, and the never-ending blame game, just to name a few. The list is endless. Now, the distrust is just as strong in my family because of all the mistruths thrust on us by the current administration. As far as increasing public trust, I believe that we should have a public accountability of

Heritage, the roots of one’s background, is a major underlying factor that influences and defines the person one becomes. The heritage of a person allows for context of how and why an individual is where they are today. Through this piece, I will delve into my family heritage to discover how and why my ancestors came to the United States of America. In order to further understand more about my heritage and where I come from, I interviewed Ms. Katie Nguyen. Ms. Katie Nguyen is my mother who resides in Tempe, Arizona and is also my oldest living relative.

I remember when my great grandpa use to take I get coffee before school every morning at 6 when I was in elementary. I grew up in Carencro , Louisiana. I always lived across from my elementary school, which is Carencro Heights Elementary so my great grandpa would always walk me to school and walk me from school and they would have fried chicken cooked for me. I was the only great-grandchild so every grandchild they had at the time was old so image that for me. Im African-American. and so is the rest of my family. All my family speaks English and also French. My cultural identity is made up of food,race, and language.

The ability of individuals who become aware of their place within society and recognize the link between individuals and society is sociological imagination according to Wright Mills. Mills defined “sociological imagination as the ability to grasp the relationship between individual lives and the larger social forces that shape them—that is, to see where biography and history intersect.”(Chambliss & Eglitis, 2016 p. 06). Social imagination has two ideas that make a division from between different sides in society that being personal troubles and public issues. Through sociological imagination we are able to view and understand things from a different view point and notice changes in social norms such as the economy shifting from agricultural to a more industrial, from

Shakespeare, in his play Coriolanus, introduced the expression ‘going against the grain.’ Coriolanus, a Roman military leader with a hot temper, became involved in politics, but his attitude for being a leader wasn’t suited to public office, which ultimately led to his downfall. Coriolanus because of his beliefs, values and morals, was the odd man out in this social society, as he ‘went against the grain’ of the established Roman Empire at that time.

My significant influence is my fourth-grade teacher. When I was little, my teachers could say that I was a little behind on my reading level. The problem wasn 't that I did not know how to read, it was understanding everything that I just had read. In fourth grade, I had to read a book and answer questions on that same book for a grade. I struggled on every single book and test. Mrs. Spooner, my fourth grade teacher, took me aside and ask me about if I actually was reading the books or not. As we both discussed, she knew I could read, but did not know I was not understanding the material. We decided to tutor every Monday after school.

A teen’s identity is influenced by many things. Family, friends, social media, they all play a role in making you who you are. Even something as simple as a selfie can affect you. You might find yourself wondering, how? We’ll talk about that later. Internal and external factors affect you. They can cause you to want to change who you are to “fit in”.

Today I am writing to address your obesity problem you claim to have, but is it really your personal trouble? Or is it a social issue? Being plus size is not just your individual problem but a societal issue. I will explain how the sociological imagination works from my perspective. What is sociology? What is sociological imagination? You may ask. Well my dear friend, to know what sociology is we must understand that “We are always participating in something larger than ourselves and if we want to understand social life and what happens to people in it, we have to understand what it is that we’re participating in and how we participate in it.” (p.39). On September 6th, 2017, we discussed the term sociological imagination in my sociology class. The term sociological imaginary was presented by the American sociologist C. Wright Mills in 1959 to describe the type of insight offered by the discipline of sociology. “Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both.” (Mills 1959).

One thing that influenced who I am today is my early childhood. I grew up in Asmara, Eritrea which is a country in Africa next to the Red Sea. When I was only a year old and my sister, Yosan, was four, my parents decided to risk everything and leave Eritrea to come to Chicago. I was raised by my grandma due to my parents departure, when I was about one years-old. Life is difficult for young adults in Eritrea. There is a mass amount of unemployment and those with jobs hardly make enough to survive and support their families. In order to find a better life, my parents made a tough decision to leave my sister and I and come to the United States.

It is known fact that the past shapes us in ways that we have control over, and ones where we don’t. Past events and experiences are a powerful factor in our sense of identity and belonging in that it helps us realise who to be and who not to be. It is the past that teaches us who to belong to and who to avoid. For example, children raised by abusive parents might grow up to despise abusive behaviour and choose an identity that has no resemblance to that of their parents. Also because of their past experiences, they might choose not to belong to groups or families who are abusive. However, the past is also a powerful factor in our sense of identity and belonging because it shapes us in ways we have no control over. It is through ancestry and