Professor Smith
English 131
11 November, 2014
An Individualistic Self-Realization
The movement to change from tradition comes in many forms, but includes complex and often hostile results. The change may be subtle and seem to lack a negative results; however, breaking away from the deep roots of tradition will cause an effect overflowing with strong emotions. This overflowing of emotions will carry over into unseen areas of peoples life’s and culture. This idea remains true when the broader society experiences tension from an individual changing from the society’s traditional values to the individuals values. Authors Barbara Mellix, Nancy Scheper-Hughes, and Robert Scholes wrote essays attempting to explain the struggle individuals and society face when trying to follow the traditional path instead of their own path to achieve success. As a result, too much tradition limits and controls people’s gifts and talents. Therefore, an individual and the broader society needs to learn from the tradition taught to them and strive to travel their own path to display the power within an individual.
The control tradition inserts into a person’s life is the type of control that problematically influences a person’s mindset. The control often causes a person to radically hold true to traditional ways of life. In the essay “The Anthropological Looking Glass”, the author Scheper-Hughes (an author that focuses on physical pain and mental suffering caused by societies) conducts an investigation among the people in an Irish village to better understand the village’s culture. After finalizing her discoveries, she penned a book for fellow anthropologists to read. An unintended audience that took a huge interest into her novel was the villagers she wrote about. The response from villagers was full emotions due to the truths she revealed to themselves and other villagers. One such villager who was full of emotion was the village schoolmaster who spoke about the novel