"Then the town was sorry with being glad, as people sometimes are sorry for those whom they have at last forced to do as they wanted them to." (Faulkner, 70) In chapter 3, we observed how society basically forces Hightower to leave the town and begin a new life somewhere else. Hightower decides to continue living in the town as an outcast yet, the town once again begins to have acts of kindness towards Hightower because they now feel "sorry" for him after they were the ones who placed him in that situation. This reminds me how sometimes society portrays the same acts these days. There is never a sense of satisfaction being that one day society can accept a group of a different ethnicity and another day they are protesting against them. However, at the end there is that feeling of sympathy towards that group being protested against. I might be wrong about this but what do you guys think?
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Society
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I think "society" is constantly contradicting itself. Take the death penalty for example. The Hammurabian concept of "an eye for an eye" is executed in murder trials when the suspect is convicted. However, the moral aspect makes people of society question whether or not ending ones life is ever justified. I think it's impossible for complete "satisfaction" to be obtained because of those conflicting feelings of wanting justice and wanting to maintain morality. In Hightower's case I think that people feel sympathy for him because their virtues tell them that Hightower has done nothing to deserve his isolated lifestyle. On the other hand, the people isolate him and they feel it is justified because he conflicts with societal normalcy. Thus seen as threatening to the social structure.
ReplyDeleteJust a thought but what if people do want to help and be kind but they don't want to be segregated themselves, or how the town people's act is based on peer pressure.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Marcus brings up a great point. Society has a way of scaring people to isolate and outcast what they believe is right. While we see this still in today's culture, there is a major difference between Hightower's culture and ours; today there are more people whom society chooses to make outcasts, as opposed to, in HIghwater's culture, only very few people were made outcasts and therefore, they felt even more alone and apart from society.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with Sierra in that society is constantly contradicting itself. Also Marcus brings up a good point, many people know what the morally right thing to do is, but they do not have the strength to stand against society on their own for fear of not "fitting in", as a group though they can start a revolution. We have seen this throughout history, women's rights is a great example.
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