Nature Vs. Nurture In Margaret Laurence's The Half Husky

Claireece Precious Jones is a morbidly obese sixteen years old African American female child from Harlem, who has suffered from gross parental maltreatment throughout her entire life.

“The people who could do the most to improve the situation of so many victims being are in fact ourselves. It’s in our hand to stop domestic violence against each other” this statement was said by the famous actor Patrick Stewart. This statement is indeed correct. Domestic violence is an international problem which is everybody’s business even if one is not being abused. I strongly believe that there should be tougher law enforcement to protect against domestic violence. No one should experience or be exposed to domestic violence for it; affects family life’ increase the crime rate in countries, and it affects one’s body and mind.

“Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it”. Have you ever experience conflict with yourself not wanting to do something but doing it anyways, against someone else or even against nature? This essay will explain the different kinds of conflict in order of: Person versus self, person versus self and person versus nature.

Many girls desire a female role model from a young age. The way these women are treated, and deal with this treatment can heavily impact the way young girls view themselves, and their future as well. Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street brings attention to issues of sexism and gender roles. This is done through a series of vignettes about the main character Esperanza navigating life by the example of her many role models. Each role model impacts Esperanza in a special way, Sally who is married at 13, Marin who is waiting to be rescued by a man, and Alicia who is balancing school and home responsibilities. These problems coming to light through the many women Esperanza looks up to, drive her to rise above her obstacles, and become more than just another poorly treated woman.

The nature vs. nurture debate is a philosophical, scientific, and cultural, debate about what causes an individual’s actions, personality, and most importantly their behavioral traits. Nature can be defined as someone’s influence from genetic behaviors, while nurture is caused by someones environment and experience. Nature is how a person acts based on their genetic inheritance and some other biological factors, they have been proven to be an important factor in the development of many mental health conditions such as depression and being bipolar. Whereas nurture affect those mental health conditions where a person develops that illness depending on their environment. Frankenstein can be seen as a prime example of the Nature versus Nurture

Linda Watson spends her twilight years rescuing prairie dogs. She has relocated some 80,000 over thirty years, more than any other person in the world. Watson spends every day traveling to farms, stalking “barking squirrel” burrows, using a hose to pump in water and dish soap, and grabbing threatened, wild animals with her bare, scarred hands.

The nature vs. nurture debate centers on whether human behaviour and personality are inherited (nature) or acquired (nurture); in other words, whether a person’s environment or a person’s genetic inheritance determines their behaviour and personality. Goldsmith and Harman (1994) adopt a neutral position, in which both nature and nurture influence people, stating that they “believe that the fundamental issue concerns the interplay between characteristics of the individual and of the relationship” (54). Goldsmith and Harman discuss temperament and attachment for infant, with temperament being linked to the nature side of the debate and attachment being linked with the nurture side; as a result, the infant’s temperament influences the attachment bond between the infant and the mother, but the attachment bond influences the temperament of the child as well. Therefore, both nature and nurture interact with each other to produce people’s behaviour (Harman et al. 54). Andersen and Berk (1998) take on the nurture perspective, while Leary (1999) claims that nature is the determining factor of a person’s personality. Andersen and Berk discuss the impact of old relationships on new/present relationships; notably, the “activation of mental representations of significant others and the use of these representations in relation to new individuals underlie transference, and thus that transference occurs as a result of basic principles that govern the activation and use of social constructs”

The nature versus nurture debate has been going on for a long time. Pudd'nhead Wilson is just one book out of many that has this debate as a theme in its story. Tom was switched at birth by Roxy, his actual mother. When the boys later grow up Tom is spoiled and lazy while Chambers is afraid of white society because he was raised as a slave. There are many reasons why this happens, some say they were born that way. Others say it’s because of their genetics. Well, Mark Twain favors the nurture side of the debate. This is because in the novel a mostly-white baby and all-white baby were switched. The novel then raises the question;

In Harvey it is made clear from the first few minutes of the movie who is suffering from a mental illness, Elwood P. Dowd. Elwood spends most of his days at the bars in town with his close friend, Harvey. Harvey is a roughly six foot tall white rabbit who Elwood refers to as a pooka which explains why only Elwood can see him, normally. Elwood is very kind to everyone he meets and never causes any harm, but that does not keep his older sister, Veta Louise Dowd Simmons, from trying to lock him up in a sanitarium. Through the entirety of Harvey, most time is spent trying to get Elwood back to the sanitarium so that he can be properly treated for his mental illness that allows him to see Harvey. Along the way, many ideas and elements go into the undermining of mental health in Harvey. More specifically, many people undermine Elwood’s illness but also the severity of his illness throughout the entirety of the movie. Characters throughout the film have the most impact on the undermining of mental illness, including the people of the town, the bartender, Veta Louise, the doctors at the sanitarium, and Elwood P. Dowd himself.

Over thousands of years, the theory upon nature versus nurture has been debated, discussed, and researched. The nature versus nurture debate has to do with whether or not certain characteristics that humans acquire over time result from nature or nurture. However, Shelly and Golding seem to favor nature more than nurture. The monster in Frankenstein and one of the boys, Jack in Lord of the Flies represent the assumption that both authors favor nature over nurture. Through Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein and William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the parallel between nature is displayed through the monster and Jack from both of the evils they inherit within their environment.

The debate in psychology whether and to what extent our aspects of behavior are either genetic or learned characteristics has been going on for a long time. Genetic is the nature side of the argument. Learned refers to the nurture side of this long debate. Some people are so caught between the two extremes that they say it is both, but the argument of which is more important is still relevant. The first person to question this idea was Francis Galton.

The nature versus nurture argument is one of the oldest debates amongst psychologists. The debate concerns whether certain aspects of your personality are inherited or if you learn them from your surroundings.

The fact that nature had a great impact on child’s development can be elucidated in the studies of twin. Flanagen (2002) explored the Minnesota study in which a set of identical twins were brought up separately. In one case, a set of identical twins was raised apart, known as Jim twins. They were not allowed to meet until they were almost forty and had many similarities even though they were raised apart. Jim Lewis was adopted after four weeks of his birth. When he was in his 30s, he decided to search for his family. After few years, he found his identical twin brother, Jim springer. Both brothers discovered some amazing similarities among them. As children, both had been fretful sleepers and nail-biters. Both suffered from migraines, hemmorhoids and high blood pressure. Both liked to go to same beach on holidays. Both named their first James Allen. There was no real explanation for all their similarities except that nature must play a crucial

Nature versus nurture debate. By: García, Justin D., PhD, Salem Press Encyclopedia, January, 2017. Retrieved from: https://content.ashford.edu/

Thesis: Human development has been regarded as one of the most highly controversial topics in the world. This debate is labeled nature versus nurture. The controversy centers on the premise that our personality, behavior, intelligence, and feelings are either genetically inherited, or environmentally earned; that we are innate creatures born with our personalities, or that they are learned by experiences and time. We are born with our personalities, but our behaviors are learned through experience and shaped thru time.