Second Chances Allow for Improved Behavior
Second chances allow for improved behaviour is a key theme in the short story “Thank You Ma’am” by Langston Hughes. The story is about a lady by the name of Luella Bates Washington Jones, and she was walking alone at night, and was almost robbed by a young boy named Roger. However, Luella’s bold-as-brass character shone through when she gave Roger a piece of her mind, but later on brought him home, fed him a nice meal, gave him 10 dollars to buy the blue suede shoes that he wanted, and sent him off. Luella’s character seems to be very harsh and rough at the beginning, but as the story progresses, the reader starts to discover that she actually does have a big heart, and that she is a very generous lady. Just the fact alone that she is willing to do so much for someone that tried to rob her, is amazing. Roger quickly starts to realize that what he did was very wrong, and when he was given a second chance, he immediately grasped it, and tries to change Luella’s opinion of him. Roger starts to realize that Luella might be someone that he could actually befriend. Roger learns very quickly that Luella is not someone he should be messing with, and immediately starts apologizing, and on the first page of the story his character is already starting to change for the better. “ I’m very sorry, lady, I’m sorry,” whispered the boy.” In this passage, Roger is starting to understand that what he did was very wrong, and unacceptable, and he is trying to make it up to Luella with his polite ways. Even though Roger didn’t end up with Luella’s pocketbook like he would have liked, he learned a lesson in life, that he won’t ever forget, and will save him from a lot of trouble in the future.
There are many examples of people being given second chances, but there is really only one meaning to it. When a person is given a second chance by someone else, they are given an opportunity to improve the other person’s opinion on them. Sometimes people make mistakes, and they want a second chance to prove that they are better people then what they appeared as the first time. In the article “Young offenders should meet victims of their crime” one man that was punched for no reason in a bar got to meet with his attacker, and talk about the situation, and what happened. Second chances are very important in situations like this, because now that they have met each other properly, the man got to see what the attacker was really like and said “You could tell that he was actually a really good guy”. This is interesting because you would think that no matter what the attacker said, the other man would still be thinking in the back of his mind about how this guy punched him. However, this is not the case in this story, because after his second opinion of the attacker was formed, the man didn’t seem to mind him too much. During the attackers second chance in front of the other man, he explained himself, and came across as a good person, not an uneducated twit. The man seemed to understand what the attacker was trying to say, and therefore the second chance was valid, and really did help the situation to improve.
August 16
One’s Identity is Formed By Societal Expectations
One's identity is formed by social expectations plays a big role in the plot of Roald Dahl's short story, "Lamb to the Slaughter". The main character Mary Maloney is a pregnant housewife who has built a perfect world for herself and her husband. The social expectation of this time period was that the woman would cater to the men's every need, and it was their job to keep the men happy. In the story Mary is home by herself all day, and she anxiously awaits the return of her husband. Just his presence is enough to take away the feeling of loneliness. All the men had to do was work and make the money, whereas the woman had to clean the house, cook the meals, cater to the men, take care of the children, and the list goes on and on! Her whole life revolves around making him happy. From cleaning the house, to setting up a drink station for when he gets home, to catering to his every need, you would think that Patrick Maloney would be overly pleased with himself for finding such a obedient woman. However, when he casually announces that he is leaving her for another woman, Mary's heart is shattered, and so is her perfect world. Mary is so shaken by this sudden occurrence, that without really thinking about it, she kills him with the frozen leg of lamb that she was planning to feed to him for his supper. This is extremely out of character for Mary, therefor the reader can't see this coming at all. A shaken Mary is so shocked by her actions that she has to take a minute to calm down before she goes and touches up her makeup, and practice her voice to make sure that she sounded like everything was alright. This shows that Mary is a very smart woman, and that she has obviously had some thinking time while cleaning the house all day, because in various parts of the story she shows smart and quick thinking.
Mary ends up lying to the police, and by getting them to eat the evidence, there is no way she will ever be caught. Her image of a perfect wife saves her from the harsh consequences of murder.
Social expectations are a huge part of many people's lives, especially modern day teenagers. "In our society, in many social instances people are unable to articulate, for example, why they do certain things. They just do them. Their conformity reflects the demands of their social network without any reflective process producing awareness of those demands. A clear examples are certain behaviors towards women which resulted from the stereotypes of women." Social expectations are very hard on some people because sometimes due to peer pressure, you are forced into doing things you don't want to do. This article is about how expectations are formed, and how usually they are formed based on people your age - how they act, and the things that they do. The article also touches base on the fact that sometimes people don't actually like something, but they pretend to just to fit in. The reality is that people will do anything to fit in, young or old, nobody wants to be alone forever. Being left out is one of the worst possible things to ever have to live with, and anyone who has ever been in middle school knows that having good friends is the key to enjoying school. Social expectations form who you are, whether you care what people think of you and follow them, or be yourself and let it go. The smallest things in life define and form who are. If everyone always wears their hair in pigtails on Tuesdays, then maybe you'll want to stand out and be different, and instead you'll wear braids. But in most cases, for self conscious teenagers who care about their reputation more than anything, they will wear pigtails. Social expectations are a huge part of growing up, because you have to make the choices that are best for you, not for everyone else. But often time people forget this, and they follow the crowd, do whatever their friends do. But at the end of the day, you have to think about what is going to be better for you personally, not the rest of the planet.
Social expectations shape who are. If you chose not to follow them, then they are just something that doesn't apply to you, because you are not afraid to be who you are. But if you are the type of person who feels that their reputation is important, then how other people view you is very crucial. In Mary Maloney's case, she was one of the people that wore pigtails on Tuesdays, she played by the rules, and was a housewife, just like everyone else. But everyone reaches a point sometime in their life when they feel like they have simply just snapped. This is what happened to Mary Maloney, she couldn't control her emotions against her husband, which just goes to show how important he was to her. Some people are much more fragile than others, and unfortunately for Patrick Maloney, his wife was one of those who just couldn't take it.
