McKibbon and Kingsolver are both creating change by trying to inform people of the trouble that is going on in our world and environment. The main reason why enough isn’t being done about the struggles and troubles in our environment is that people don’t know enough about it. So many people don’t know the extremity of what is truly going on. The best way to create change is to fill people in; let them know the truth about what is going on. Both of these authors have written books about the issues in the environment. McKibbon went more of the informative route using numbers and statistics to get the point across to his readers. The use of numbers and statistics can be useful because by people seeing what those big numbers mean for the environment can scare people. A lot of people don’t know its that big of an issue until they see those big numbers. Kingsolver went with the fiction route by using characters and a plot to explain what is going on. Her strategy is more “manipulative” as she says. The reader forms a relationship with the characters in the story. The characters then bring up these environmental issues and that is how the reader becomes informed and learns about the issues in the environment. The key to creating change is informing people of the true issue at hand and addressing the seriousness of it and the consequences if nothing is done to resolve them.
Month: October 2017
Brianna Fitzgerald ENG 110 Professor Amy Amoroso 10/17/17 Why are there so many stereotypes in today's society? Today’s society is full of stereotypes which are created through people’s immediate thoughts of something and generalizes it. Stereotypes often are found to be unfitting and untrue when it comes to reality. People form biased thoughts of one another based off of stereotypes and can often lead to misinterpretations of people we do not know. It is claimed that people can all fit into one stereotype type or another. Do they though? People are unique in so many ways making it hard to fit everyone into a stereotype that fits them correctly. Two people can share many traits, but no two people are exactly alike, therefore making it hard to categorize everyone. Stereotypes are so common in society , but once you look more into it and try to make the connections between people and the stereotypes you can see that they hold more false assumptions than true ones. Stereotypes can hold true to some people, but stereotypes can also offend people. For example, cheerleaders are stereotyped to be pretty, dumb, popular girls. This can be insulting to them because that is not held true to all cheerleaders. Same goes for football players. They are portrayed to be big, dumb, meathead guys. Each person is different just because they share one similar interest doesn’t automatically characterize them all the same.
Brianna Fitzgerald ENG 110 Professor Amy Amoroso 10/12/17 Why Should We Care About Social Change? Social Change is the way we improve things in society. We should care about this because it is the society that we live in and can someway affect us. Changes in our society don’t just happen easily. They take time, effort, and a lot of work. People come together with one another, whether they are close or just pass by each other occasionally. Even strangers come together and form new bonds. A movement starts by someone wanting to make a change and sharing their idea. The idea is then spread through weak and strong ties including and attract more people to help make a change. I’m sure you’ve heard of a movement to change something whether it be from a friend or even something you hear around or from a teacher. You can be included in these movements. You are a part of society so you have the choice to participate in the change if you wish to. You can choose to join their side, you could just a counter side, you could even just ignore the issue if it doesn’t deem important to you. The importance in caring about social change is that this is your society it could easily effect you so you should be aware of what is going on.
Brianna Fitzgerald ENG 110 Professor Amy Amoroso 10/9/17 In order to make a change in society, social habits and involvement play a big part. In the article, “From Civil Rights to Megachurches” Duhigg states, “ And at the core of his churches growth and his success is a fundamental belief in the power of social habits”. This quote shows that even back in time of the civil rights movement social ties and interactions played a huge part in making a change. People had to come together and talk to one another to make any change possible because no one person is able to do that alone. This idea relates a lot to what Hallward said about social cohesion in “How Telling Our Silenced Stories Can Change the World” which was, “It’s a tool that helps people drop into the most heartfelt story they can tell, because when we speak of what is most person, it’s the most universal. That is the way that other people can connect and it brings the story, where people seem so different, so they can find their way to each other, and it brings it out finally into the larger culture”. (hallward 8:40) This quote shows that by talking about things and relating to what another has said can form ties between society and actually allow for a change that will improve our society.
Most of this part of the reading was fairly familiar to me. We learned about this situation going all the way back to elementary school. We always learned about Martin Luther King Jr. around his birthday and every year we would watch the same movie about his life and what he did. Rosa Parks was also very commonly talked about in school around the same time we talked about Martin Luther King Jr. I had always heard about the situation of Parks on the bus and people boycotting the bus, but I hadn’t heard about the court case or how King was reluctant to help at first. Duhigg states, “It grows because of the habits of a community, and the weak ties that hold neighborhoods and clans together” (Duhigg 87) It referring to movements and revolutions. This shows true as he relates back and touches on it multiple times throughout the piece. King wasn’t on board until someone he had a tie with was on board, and when the community was all on board to make a change and help go against the segregation laws against blacks. Duhigg touches on examples of this quote many times throughout the writing. Many people only wanted to help with the revolution because they either had ties with Parks, King or someone else involved in the movement. This shows it is true that people want to help and feel pressured to help when they have a tie with someone who is helping or when they saw how many people were involved and didn’t want to stick out from the others.
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