Swing Kids Sociology

Although humans may originally behave due to innate reasons, much of literature argues external forces shape character and possess the power to influence the way societies behave. Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief exhibits how individuals may react in times of discrimination, and demonstrates the love and hate accompanying war. Difficult times challenge morality, and tests one’s limits; Liesel Meminger perseveres through arduous events, namely due to her identity as a creative and brave adolescent. Liesel’s identity is shaped and ultimately strengthened by outside forces.

Hans Fallada’s novel Little Man What Now, illustrates the story of a German man who hits low points throughout his life. Pinneberg is the man that is forced to marry when he gets his girlfriend pregnant. He struggles from one job to another and is struggling to support his family. This story depicts the overwhelming reality of a middle class family in Germany. A difficulty of maintaining a budget is important in society. It includes the fear of the middle class towards the government too. Han’s Fallada novel is effective in describing the realities of the middle class families in they struggle to maintain a job, to maintain a marriage, and to maintain the trends within society.

Trust No Fox on his Green Heath, And No Jew on his Oath, written by Elvira Bauer, is a short children’s book that was published in 1936 as a propaganda tool to promote the antisemitic ideas of the Nazi party in Germany. Firstly, this essay will explore the purpose of Bauer’s piece as a propagandist tool and how it is being used to promote the image of the Inferior Jew, the superior Aryan, and the Nazi state. Secondly, I will examine the antisemitic elements that are used by Bauer to present the Jew. Finally, I will examine the psychological influence that works of this nature had on German children when it was used as an educational tool.

Sociology is the study of “society, including patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and culture. It is a social science that uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about social order, acceptance, and change.” Parks and Recreation is a television series that exemplifies the basics of sociology. It is based in a town called Pawnee, Indiana and revolves around their local government. The main characters consist of Leslie Knope, Ann Perkins, Ben Wyatt, Andy Dwyer, April Ludgate, Ron Swanson, Chris Traeger, Jerry Gergich, and Tom Haverford. This show captivates sociology throughout its entirety.

In the movie Swing Kids directed by Thomas Carter, Peter and Thomas are Hitler Youth by day and swing kids by night. However, as time goes by, the boys find this difficult to maintain. As they get deeper in the Hitler Youth Movement, Thomas becomes committed to the Nazis, while Peter decides to take a stand as a resistor.

Swing has also helped people come together not only to listen, but also to play. It was during the time of the civil rights movement that swing was created and popularized. While the African Americans had their freedom, they were still largely unaccepted and segregated. Even though swing did not fix the segregation part of the world, it did bring blacks and whites together in interesting ways. Swing was first introduced by black musicians. Some of them included Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, and Jimmy Lunceford. Interestingly enough, because of the popularity of the music, African Americans were able to produce music and bring it into white society for them to listen to. These African American musicians also influenced many of the white musicians as well. White jazz musicians had taken inspiration from black jazz music for many years, but because of swing, they became even more deeply devoted to integrating this music to blacks and whites. Benny Goodman was one of these white musicians.

In the memoir, Night, written by Elie Wiesel, the author discusses the struggle to survive during the Holocaust. A major theme illustrated throughout the memoir is survival. The two types of survival that are predominate are survival of the fittest and family commitment. The theme of survival through self-preservation is seen in the memoir Night the situations of Madame Schachter being beaten in the cattle car on the way to Auschwitz, the Rabbi’s son leaving him behind on the death march, and the son killing his father over a crust of bread.

The entire world was so ignorant to such a massacre of horrific events that were right under their noses, so Elie Wiesel persuades and expresses his viewpoint of neutrality to an audience. Wiesel uses the ignorance of the countries during World War II to express the effects of their involvement on the civilians, “And then I explain to him how naive we were, that the world did know and remained silent. And that is why I swore never to be silent when and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation” (Weisel). To persuade the audience, Elie uses facts to make the people become sentimental toward the victims of the Holocaust. Also, when Weisel shares his opinion with the audience, he gains people onto his side because of his authority and good reputation. To prove his statement, Wiesel restates a personal encounter with a young Jewish boy after the Holocaust, “‘Who would allow such crimes to be

Conformity and group mentality are major aspects of social influence that have governed some of the most notorious events and experiments in history. The Holocaust is a shocking example of group mentality, or groupthink, which states that all members of the group must support the group’s decisions strongly, and all evidence leading to the contrary must be ignored. Social norms are an example of conformity on a smaller scale, such as tipping your waiter or waitress, saying please and thank you, and getting a job and becoming a productive member of society. Our society hinges on an individual’s inherent need to belong and focuses on manipulating that need in order to create compliant members of society by using the ‘majority rules’ concept. This

In both the novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and the film Swing Kids conformity and rebellion is used to reveal that no everyone followed Hitler’s lead and many stood up for what they believed but on the other side many people did conform to Hitler’s ideas. Throughout The Book Thief and Swing Kids there are many similarities that help us understand what people went through during the time Hitler took over. Three similarities that help argue that The Book Thief and Swing Kids have a common theme are, Liesel and Peter both had something close to them that rebelled against the Nazi group, The Huberman’s hid Max, while Peter hid his dancing and Rudy, Liesel’s best friends family was apart of the Nazi group where as Peters best friend Thomas

The film, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, follows the story of Charlie as he braves through the challenges of freshman year. Throughout his first year, Charlies experiences friendship, alienation, love, mistakes, depression, acceptance of past events and newfound motivation. With the help of his love interest Sam, her stepbrother Patrick, and other likeminded individuals, Charlie is able to gain a sense of belonging and a boost of confidence that ensures his survival for the high school years yet to come (Halfon, Chbosky, 2012). This essay will delve into an in-depth analysis of adolescence from a socio-cultural perspective, using events from the film to provide examples and further enhance arguments. Furthermore, topics highlighting what I believe to be the most crucial aspects of adolescence will be discussed. The analysis of hegemonic masculinity, age induced frustration and restrictions, and the discourse of innocence will be defined and elaborated on. Finally, a comparison between the socio-cultural and developmental lenses of youth analysis, the unique view they each offer and my personal experience using the socio-cultural lens, will be discussed.

Cruelty surrounds the world constantly, and frequently appears in works of literature to reveal certain things about the theme. In the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, these acts of cruelty express and enhance the theme. One of the large themes revealed by these acts is “man’s inhumanity to man,” which includes the mistreatment of Jews by the Nazis, the common people, and other Jews. Watching the large amounts of violence, abuse, and discrimination that occur in this memoir show us the horrors of the Holocaust and how it transformed the men and women who experienced it, as well as those who caused it.

Bernhard Schlink’s novel The Reader, set in Germany in the post-World War II era, explores the social and cultural tensions between the Nazi and Post – Nazi generations in the aftermath of the Third Reich. Schlink uses literary techniques in The Reader to evoke the reader’s sympathy for flawed characters. Schlink does this through using motifs, symbolism, and foreshadowing to portray the protagonists flaw of inferiority and Hanna’s illiteracy. Characterisation and imagery are used to portray the character’s actions, and as a result, the reader’s perception of the characters change throughout the novel. Schlink uses tone, narration, and juxtaposition to convey to the reader the emotionless and monotonous way in which Michael narrates the story,

Telling Stories is a reliable and awesome source for people to use because all of their information is 100% true and primary. Ralph was on the other side of this situation due to the fact that he had never been sent to the concentration camps, he grew up having Hitler Youth Groups in his schools and denys what Hitler was doing to everyone even though he wasn't a jewish person. The goal of this article was to maintain the information to use for the annotated

Hoss reflects that he was a model prisoner because he was always taught to be obedient to the point of painstakingly neatness so this made him fit into prison life quite well because he always performed his duties to the satisfaction of the foreman and loved the daily routine of it (Ibid, 70). These orders of authority from prison guards makes Hoss satisfied, to the point where the reader almost feels that Hoss enjoyed prison life because of its regular routine and authority of the guards. Hoss’ comfort in prison life foreshadows how Hoss would easily be able to become enthralled by the totalitarian ideology of National Socialism because just like in prison he obeyed higher authority in the SS without question. An interesting moment in Hoss’ memoirs, which show his feeling of devotion and duty towards Germany, is when an inmate tells Hoss that the reason he was in jail was because he killed a pregnant mother and several children. Hoss becomes enraged at the man’s savageness for killing innocent people and never stops to think that he acted the same way when he killed the innocent man that betrayed his friend Schlageter, but justifies the murder he committed as a political murder that was done to protect Germany. Analyzing Hoss’ childhood to his time in prison is very important because it shows how Hoss was shaped into obeying orders from higher authority and how he developed a sense of duty and devotion to protecting Germany. Hannah Arendt, the author of Origins of Totalitarianism, explains that National Socialism was a totalitarian ideology that built itself on the idea that higher authority from Himmler and Hitler was never to be judged whether they were right or wrong because by following these orders