Amish Family Identity Essay
The first group we belong to, the family has more influence than any other group on forming our identity.
Dear diary,
Throughout my life in the Amish community, there is no doubt that I had learnt a lot, especially from my family who means a lot to me. Today I am 17 years old, the time when I am given the opportunity to make my life’s most important decision of living in the Amish for my whole life or joining the mainstream society, a whole new world, away from conformity and the restriction of self-expression. I am faced with the most difficult decision of leaving my family and loved ones to an unknown world and society where the way of life is completely different from the Amish society.
My first experienced in the backstreets of Philadelphia was …show more content…
horrifying was the witness of a horrendous murder. I was terrified of that world, with dangers lurking everywhere. Violence is defied in my culture and witnessing such a dreadful scene was terrifying. The outside world was new to me, I found it strange yet interesting, everyone seemed in a hurry to reach somewhere, everything looked huge to me but most important of all, something about the murder changed the way I saw people. That was the day I met John Book, a police officer who became an important person in my life. He lived amongst us Amish for some time, after being shot by the corrupt cop who was behind the atrocious assassination of a person. Today I am 17 years trying to take the right path for the rest of my life and looking back at those days make me wonder how it would have been if John stayed with us.
Knowing about the outside world and its freedom of having a sense of selfhood is overwhelming. Being born in an Amish community, abiding by the rules and culture was a part of my life, however, the desire of experiencing a carefree and freedom of a sense of selfhood environment in the outside world is exhilarating. Since the murder scene I came to differentiate between good and evil, I was able to tell a bad or a good man and that was alarming to Grossvater, he was surprised as well as frightened when I told him that I would kill only the bad man. He tried to explain how none but only God knows who the bad man is; we human beings cannot tell how a person is. But I saw what they did, there action tells me the kind of person they are and I did not quite agree with him.
I admire John; he was someone that inspires me in a certain way, I became close to him during his stay here with us, and seeing him leave the Amish, I had a feeling of never seeing him again because of the different world we live in.
His beliefs and values are completely different from ours, yet the fact of him fitting in our society, respecting our way of living, and adopting them increases my admiration for him even more. Nevertheless, no matter how much time he spent with us or wearing Amish clothes, he can never change who he really is in the inside. Having spend his life fighting crime and standing up for justice, John lives in an environment where violence is part of his everyday life and watching the bullies mocking and insulting the Amish was inacceptable for him, he had to take action. He is a good man who fights against crime and in spite of the violence involved; a part of me wants to do the same thing. I have the choice today of trying to be the saviour of many human life, of breaking all cultural barriers and reach out for the real world where I have the chance of being like John. But, that would mean to be excommunicated from the community; to abandon my mother and Grossvater, to a world stranger to
me.
I remember holding the gun of John during his stay, and he had warned me of how dangerous it was but handed it to me still after taking out the bullets. That was the moment when I had a thought of being like him and using one of these guns. Being an Amish forbids us to even think about violence in any sort but having gone through so much as a child, my beliefs and values were being taken over by the mainstream society’s way of living. I recall my mother’s shocked face on seeing me with the gun and made it clear to John to respect the Amish culture, but after knowing about her attraction towards him there is no doubt that at some point she must have thought of going against her values and accept the one of John’s.
The opportunity of choosing between these two contrasting world is tough, however, it is a chance for me to decide who I really am and try to be the person I want to be instead of trying to belong somewhere I might regret. Helping people and seeking justice like John who fought against the corrupted cops increased the admiration I have for him and seeing so much unfairness happening with tourists making fun of our way of living is intolerable. I think I know where I belong.
Written explanation
The purpose of this diary entry is to explore the inner conflict of Samuel of belonging to the Amish culture or wanting to be free from rules of the community and believe what he thinks is right. We are able to see how he’s identity is formed by the influence of John where he wishes to be like him, to fight against bad people. The audience of this piece might be individuals who struggle in finding their own identity and are suppress by their family to abide by their culture or certain beliefs and values they are brought up with. This form of diary entry is written in the 1st person voice where the audience is able to understand the feelings of the writer. The use of strong emotive language such as ‘atrocious’, ‘horrifying’, ‘dreadful’ illustrates the extent of the murder scene witnessed by a little boy of only 7 years old causing a feeling of sympathy from the reader. The use of anecdote is also present from the film ‘witness’ by Peter Weir which illustrates the how family does not influence the identity of someone.
Dear diary,
Throughout my life in the Amish community, there is no doubt that I had learnt a lot, especially from my family who means a lot to me. Today I am 17 years old, the time when I am given the opportunity to make my life’s most important decision of living in the Amish for my whole life or joining the mainstream society, a whole new world, away from conformity and the restriction of self-expression. I am faced with the most difficult decision of leaving my family and loved ones to an unknown world and society where the way of life is completely different from the Amish society.
My first experienced in the backstreets of Philadelphia was …show more content…
horrifying was the witness of a horrendous murder. I was terrified of that world, with dangers lurking everywhere. Violence is defied in my culture and witnessing such a dreadful scene was terrifying. The outside world was new to me, I found it strange yet interesting, everyone seemed in a hurry to reach somewhere, everything looked huge to me but most important of all, something about the murder changed the way I saw people. That was the day I met John Book, a police officer who became an important person in my life. He lived amongst us Amish for some time, after being shot by the corrupt cop who was behind the atrocious assassination of a person. Today I am 17 years trying to take the right path for the rest of my life and looking back at those days make me wonder how it would have been if John stayed with us.
Knowing about the outside world and its freedom of having a sense of selfhood is overwhelming. Being born in an Amish community, abiding by the rules and culture was a part of my life, however, the desire of experiencing a carefree and freedom of a sense of selfhood environment in the outside world is exhilarating. Since the murder scene I came to differentiate between good and evil, I was able to tell a bad or a good man and that was alarming to Grossvater, he was surprised as well as frightened when I told him that I would kill only the bad man. He tried to explain how none but only God knows who the bad man is; we human beings cannot tell how a person is. But I saw what they did, there action tells me the kind of person they are and I did not quite agree with him.
I admire John; he was someone that inspires me in a certain way, I became close to him during his stay here with us, and seeing him leave the Amish, I had a feeling of never seeing him again because of the different world we live in.
His beliefs and values are completely different from ours, yet the fact of him fitting in our society, respecting our way of living, and adopting them increases my admiration for him even more. Nevertheless, no matter how much time he spent with us or wearing Amish clothes, he can never change who he really is in the inside. Having spend his life fighting crime and standing up for justice, John lives in an environment where violence is part of his everyday life and watching the bullies mocking and insulting the Amish was inacceptable for him, he had to take action. He is a good man who fights against crime and in spite of the violence involved; a part of me wants to do the same thing. I have the choice today of trying to be the saviour of many human life, of breaking all cultural barriers and reach out for the real world where I have the chance of being like John. But, that would mean to be excommunicated from the community; to abandon my mother and Grossvater, to a world stranger to
me.
I remember holding the gun of John during his stay, and he had warned me of how dangerous it was but handed it to me still after taking out the bullets. That was the moment when I had a thought of being like him and using one of these guns. Being an Amish forbids us to even think about violence in any sort but having gone through so much as a child, my beliefs and values were being taken over by the mainstream society’s way of living. I recall my mother’s shocked face on seeing me with the gun and made it clear to John to respect the Amish culture, but after knowing about her attraction towards him there is no doubt that at some point she must have thought of going against her values and accept the one of John’s.
The opportunity of choosing between these two contrasting world is tough, however, it is a chance for me to decide who I really am and try to be the person I want to be instead of trying to belong somewhere I might regret. Helping people and seeking justice like John who fought against the corrupted cops increased the admiration I have for him and seeing so much unfairness happening with tourists making fun of our way of living is intolerable. I think I know where I belong.
Written explanation
The purpose of this diary entry is to explore the inner conflict of Samuel of belonging to the Amish culture or wanting to be free from rules of the community and believe what he thinks is right. We are able to see how he’s identity is formed by the influence of John where he wishes to be like him, to fight against bad people. The audience of this piece might be individuals who struggle in finding their own identity and are suppress by their family to abide by their culture or certain beliefs and values they are brought up with. This form of diary entry is written in the 1st person voice where the audience is able to understand the feelings of the writer. The use of strong emotive language such as ‘atrocious’, ‘horrifying’, ‘dreadful’ illustrates the extent of the murder scene witnessed by a little boy of only 7 years old causing a feeling of sympathy from the reader. The use of anecdote is also present from the film ‘witness’ by Peter Weir which illustrates the how family does not influence the identity of someone.