Folkways are customs or conventions of everyday life. There are no right or wrong associated with folkways, it’s just the way people do things. In this assignment, I had to break a folkway and support a folkway. The goals of this essay is to describe when I broke a folkway by going barefoot in public and when I supported a folkway by giving people a proper handshake in public. I will be reflecting on my experience. In this essay, it was hard trying to find an interesting folkway to break. I contemplated on maybe taking my siblings to the grocery store while screaming. But, that quickly went away when I started searching for examples of breaking a folkway online. During my search, I came across a list of folkways to break. There was one …show more content…
Twenty minutes in I decide to change my destination in the mall. I decided to go into stores specifically high end stores without shoes. I went into Armani Exchange. Inside the store, everything was very pricey with high quality. I believed that it would be a perfect place to test out how the employees and customers would react. In Armani Exchange, there were a couple of people that looked like there were in the upper class. One woman looked at me and scoffed whereas her husband was looked at me in curiosity. I felt like they were talking about me. They would casually whisper and look up and down at me while trying to give me direct eye contact. A few minutes later, an employee came up to me asked if I could leave the store. She asked me “Why I wasn’t wearing any shoes?”. But, what surprised me was that she was very kind to me. I assumed that she would be rude and snarky. But, I was wrong. She asked me if “I would like a pair of sandals in the back”. She told me that she had extra shoes. I immediately declined and explained to her that this was an experiment for an assignment. She later on laughed and told me that it was a good one. I proceeded to leave the store. I believe that this folkway worked well because it was something that wasn’t really ordinary in the public eye. I mean that because I went to a mall. Whereas, many people are aware that there are people who do not have shoes most people
Knowing secret information can be a very enlightening thing. Knowing information that someone else does not helps make the reader feel more powerful. Such is the case when the reader knows of the mythical Phoenix and then reads “A Worn Path.” Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path,” the story of an elderly grandmother’s journey to the doctor’s office for medication for her grandson, explores allusions to mythology, including the character Phoenix and her journey.
A worn path is a story about a woman named Phoenix Jackson who needs to go a journey to town to get medicine for her sick grandson. It is a trip she has made before many times before (hence the title A worn Path) but there is something special about this trip, something different. In this paper I plan to dwell into the symbolism behind the Legend of the Phoenix and its relationship to her journey in the story. The legend of the Phoenix is about a fabled sacred bird of ancient Egyptians, said to come out of Arabia every 500 years to Heliopolis, where it burned itself on altar and rose again from its ashes young and beautiful; symbol of immortality. I think this story also represents Christian beliefs because the setting is
Mores are behaviors or rules that should not be broken under any circumstances. These can not be overlooked. Such as rape or
What differentiates American society from other societies is the rules and values that they follow. In sociology, these are called norms. Norms govern our lives by showing us how to behave in a certain ways. Codified norms turn into laws. One such norm is to shake hands when meeting someone. Another norm is when using public transportation, to give up his or her seat to someone who is elderly, disabled or pregnant. William Graham Sumner was one of the first American sociologists to distinguish between norms and folkways. Folkways stem from norms that most often are done unconsciously, and emerge from repetition. They are vital to society, are flexible, and do not provoke strong public responses if broken (Sumner, 1906, p. 1).
The North Hanover Mall is an average shopping center with various stores and small attractions. Typically, the mall is not over-crowded; however, during the evenings and weekends it is well-traveled. There are the average chain stores such as JCPenny’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Hallmark, and Bath and Body Works. Likewise, there are some smaller, lesser known stores, for example, a few nail and hair salons, cafes, a pizza shop, and a sports apparel store. In general, there is a diverse mix of people shopping, from ethnicity to ages and group sizes. The night I choose to do my social observation the mall was much busier than I had anticipated. There was a Halloween event and an antique car show; both circumstances brought more individuals than usual into the shopping complex.
I was standing for 20 minutes “doing nothing” at Jay Gee’s , on a hot weather around 6:00pm on September 9, 2015. This is an ice cream place where families and kids go during the summer to play golfing, go cars, batting cages and an arcade. Families also go to eat ice cream and spend a good time with kids and family. As I was standing in front of kids and adults while they were trying to order ice cream or play, I saw people looking at me with an strange looks, like if I had four head, some people ignore me while others ask me if I was okay or ask me what I was doing and if I needed any help. Others where talking among others criticizing me by saying that I was crazy. Others pull their child away from me like if I was going to something
"Phoenix Jackson: Mind Over Matter" Novelist Eudora Welty is often studied and adored by many readers; her much deserved recognition comes from her brilliant, deeply compassionate, and lively stories and novels (Ford 36). Like many of her stories, Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path" is set in Mississippi. In "A Worn Path," Welty focuses on an old woman's journey to Natchez and on the many obstacles that she encounters along the way. Phoenix is going to town to get medication for her beloved grandson. But he trip is difficult because nature and her handicaps are making it hard for her to reach her destination. Nevertheless, the old woman boldly continues along the equally old path, struggling every step of the way. Even
I decided for my social observation the mall would be a good place to start. I came there on a Friday evening when there should be plenty of people to watch. I also sat in the Barnes and Noble café after that to observe. I expected to see a lot of people shopping and conversing. A few things did stand out to me within the few hours I was there. Some things I didn’t expect to see. We are expected to behave a certain way in public determined by our culture as to what is acceptable. Some people stay well within the lines while some might stray outside the norms but never too far typically. Usually the ones to travel to the extremes are adolescents and teenagers. This is what I observed.
Why do you think McCarthy has chosen not to give his characters names? How do the generic labels of “the man” and “the boy” affect the way you /readers relate to them?
“A Worn Path” is, in my opinion, a very good story. It tells of an old black woman and the struggles she’s had to deal with throughout her life. The author names the woman Phoenix after a mythological bird that died and then came back to life through its ashes which makes it immortal. The author makes the woman “immortal” because she continues to have something to live for, her grandson, whom she apparently considers her biggest gift.
Every other weekend I venture to most of the Goodwill’s throughout town. I decided that I would violate the norm of personal space. I would wonder through the aisle and slowly make my way to the person I choose to conduct the experience. When I got close enough I would act as though I was browsing through clothes, or I was really interested in the items I was looking at to act as though I
The world view of the Navajo who had lived for many centuries on the high Colorado Plateau was one of living in balance with all of nature, as the stewards of their vast homeland which covered parts of four modern states. They had no concept of religion as being something separate from living day to day and prayed to many spirits. It was also a matriarchal society and had no single powerful leader as their pastoral lifestyle living in scattered independent family groups require no such entity. This brought them repeatedly into conflict with Spanish, Mexicans and increasingly by the mid-nineteenth century, Americans as these practices were contrary to their male dominated religiously monolithic societal values. The long standing history
In this paper I’m writing about a violation i witness, and one norm violation i committed myself. Before I did this I had to figure what a norm was. “Norms are reality expectations and the right behavior” (Aiken, 1991, p.121). Avoiding a norm violation is to go against the right behavior that you shouldn’t commit if it isn’t the right thing to do. There are many types of norm violations you can break. Mores are the “Norms are very strict to enforce because they are thought different essential to the core values of the group” (Aiken, 1991, p. 132). A folkway is a “norm that isn’t as strict and enforced as mores or values” (Aiken, 1991, p. 136). Norms aren’t the same everywhere, because behaviors that might be legal to do in the United States can be illegal in other countries and they can get offended if you disrespect them. Cultures are a very big thing when it comes to being respectful and disrespectful when it comes to a perspective of behavior. This is due to different type of cultural systems because in the United States we will accept some norm violations but in another country they might find it offensive. Values are considering standards in which people define what is desirable, and undesirable, and also good, or evil, and gorgeous from hideous. When people accept our values in the right behavior, that’s when we approach them with a smile and a handshake, or even better we can approach them with a present. When norms are violated we become angry and disappointed, so
I decided to tag along with Lesnick and observe what kind of questions she was asked, or how she was treated when she would approach a customer. The retail staff was very friendly, and helpful. I did observe that many consumers were annoyed of this; I witnessed one customer who was approached by six sales associates. She finally threw her hands up and said, “I really am okay, no I do not need any help picking out underwear for myself, and no I do not need a basket, and yes I have already read the signs saying Buy on bra get the other 50% off,” and she walked to the register very angry.” Lesnick was approached by several consumers who asked for
Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods” is a book that epitomizes the struggles that one needs to go through in order to better themselves. This is evident with the main characters. They are two middle aged men named Bryson, a man who resideds in New Hampshire and Katz, Bryson’s overweight alcoholic college friend from Iowa. When he thought of someone to accompany him, a grumpy college friend named Katz came to mind. As they started off, Bryson started off with the goal that the trail was only being hiked as a way to see the grand nation of America, but it lead to so much more as it uncovered many important topics. This is true because the trail was filled with adventure in discovering America’s heartland and realizing their own personal