How Does Society Define You?
Who Are You?
In class we’ve been talking about character. We’ve analyzed the actions, speech, and thoughts of characters in an effort to understand who they are as people. If the author provides it, we look at the character’s background information–where they live and the culture they’ve been brought up in–and we determine to what extent it has shaped him or her. The reason for doing this in English class is to talk about the role the character plays in the analysis of the story, but in the grander scheme we want to know how we relate to the character.
This examination of people and what makes them tick isn’t unique to the classroom. We do it all the time in life. When we meet someone new, we ask them where they are from, who their family is, what they do for a living, or where they go to school. Our understanding of other people draws on how we relate, or do not relate, to them ourselves.
Born This Way
But what if you were told who you are? What if you were told what kind of job you could have or who you could marry? What if there was no escape from the assignment of your place in society and all that the distinction entailed? To many this might sound like a pitch for a new dystopian young adult novel, but for some people it has been reality.
We watched the video above in class about the caste system in India. It talked about how people were born into one of four tiers of society or they were born an untouchable–outside of society–and that is where they stayed. While the video provided evidence of how India has made changes to dismantle the caste system, our Listenwise selection focused on the experiences of a woman who was born into the untouchable caste and how it negatively affected her life even after moving to America.
As Americans we enjoy a lot of freedoms in the United States that allow us to change our personal stories or make them up as we go along. However, like any society we also have our downfalls. We stereotype people and try to make them fit into labeled boxes that make us feel more comfortable. However, the people of any culture are too complex to be bound and too unique to stick a label on. Instead, it’s better to keep an open mind and seek to gain new understandings about the experiences of others. You’ll have the opportunity to practice as we read The Bridge Home and connect with other classes around the world.
In the comments below, I want you to answer this question:
In your opinion, are there more similarities or differences between India’s caste system and America’s social classes?
Use the ACE question answering strategy and evidence from the video and recording above to support your answer.