Their Own Ideology example essay topic

One's opinion, philosophy, or ideology, apparent or hidden can help, or hinder individual or collective development. This hindering action is apparent in Plato's Allegory of the Cave, and the action of helping is apparent in Free at Last by Harriet Jacobs. Each of these authors has their own ideology, which they would like to share. In Plato's Allegory of the Cave we look into the lives of people whose ideology is chosen for them. These people are forced to sit and stare in one direction their whole life.

One would wonder if it ever occurred to them to look to their left of their right. This has been their way of life since childbirth, they know nothing else. How, if you know of nothing else can you come up with your own ideology and make it work? How can you even think without consulting your way first? Maybe thinking is beyond what you are allowed to do. Within the society in which they are living these people believe that what is right is right because they were never enlightened to anything else.

The people never had the chance to look beyond, or to go away and then come back. Plato implies that if one does escape this so-called cave, the others who remain want to kill the escapee. Once a person has escaped, they see light for the first time. They feel tremendous pain. The reason that they are feeling this is because they have been sheltered for so long. They have not had the opportunity to think for themselves or to realize that there are other ways of life.

All of the ideas, all of the new ideologies flow into that persons head. Their mind begins to turn a mile a minute and all of the change is too much to process. After this escapee had time to sort out these new ideas and form his or her own take on what the world has to offer they want to return to their home and share their takes on life and how things should be. The people of the 'cave' have only known one thing. They are never allowed to look to another place for inspiration or for information. They have to go with the flow and accept everything just as it is handed to them.

They are forbidden to look elsewhere for answers. My ideology is that if you don't like something, change it. The people in the cave are never given the opportunity to try, or they are too afraid to. They are afraid to change. Change is definitely inevitable. No matter what things beyond ones control will always be cause for change.

From the smallest change, the style of clothes that you are wearing, to one that is more major, changing your way of life. From time to time people have got to understand what the escapees are feeling when all the ideas are rushing into their heads. Most often I feel this when I am in a fabric store, surrounded be bolt after bolt of every kind of fabric imaginable. The possibilities are endless. From lace to taffeta to cotton to velvet. I need to take a moment to realize where I am and to refocus on whatever project that I am currently working on.

Even after you decide on a certain fabric you still have so many choices to make. There are different trims, both colors and styles, and then, even though you have decided on a certain fabric you can always make alterations. You start with a simple idea and it can branch off in so many different ways. It is extremely interesting. But the idea is that once I walk in my mind starts turning and it doesn't stop. There are so many possibilities and it is impossible to only choose one route.

The idea of the escapee returning to the cave can be compared to a country girl moving to the city and leaving almost every aspect of their hometown behind them. They arrive in a new place, and once again all of the new ideas rush in and the old ideas start to fade. The atmosphere of the city is so much different from that of the country that you don't realize how much you " ve changed until you return home. Even though I have lived in places other than barker, (Lockport, Denver, Boulder), I was too little to remember or to be influenced by much. Beginning with pre-k I attended school in Barker, which has more rumors than cows and more cows than people. Certain people, myself included, want only one thing to leave the small town.

Some people actually do this, and they never look back. Once people escape from the 'cave' they don't want to go back. I know that I don't want to go back to my cave because it shelters me. People there think that there is nothing more to the world besides Barker. Emotionally I can't handle that idea. There are good and bad aspects of everyplace, and every place is different, but unless someone gets out and learns something other than that place, then the place will never have the chance to change.

On the other hand Harriet Jacobs uses narration and description to subjectively paint a picture of her ideology for us. She tells us that her philosophy is based upon lessons, family and morals. Instead of solely relying on her own intuition she uses her family's morals to decide what is right and wrong, not only for herself, but for society as well. In Free at Last Jacobs places strong moral values on the idea that people are not property. A very controversial idea for her time. Then people of African American decent were deemed as property because of physical differences.

This was a strong moral idea of hers that she carried to her death. She tried to get people to learn that family plays an immense role in people's ideology. She passed her ideas on to her children and let them know things that she had learned and things that had been passed on to her from her relatives. Ideas that as a child she may have rebelled against, are now her truths, her philosophy, and her ideology. Above all other things she wanted her children, and society to know that there is no price for freedom. She told her children, and anyone else that would listen that this is one of the greatest truths, and if there is one thing that you should learn from me it should be that.

She wanted them to remember the pain that she had experienced, and what she had to live through when they decided to create their own ideology. This happens in everyday life. When you are young you are protected from many things. You don't realize how evil the world can be. At the moment your biggest fear might be that your little brother is going to have more Kool-Aid in his cup than you. And that just wouldn't be right, it wouldn't be fair.

All my life I one of my main arguments when I didn't get my own way (which wasn't very often) would be that all my friends were able to do it, or that whoever's mom let them do something. Then I would tell my parents that it wasn't fair. My mom would reply with the same thing almost every time, in fact her mother used the same line on her. LIFE ISN'T FAIR. And the sooner that you learn that the better off you " ll be.

As much as I heard that it took me forever to start realizing that this is true, and they will never hear me admit that they were right. I think that when it actually hit and I realized that I couldn't use coincidence as an excuse anymore was when one of my dad's close friends died in a car accident. Without getting into to many details he was going 30 mi / h in a place where people do double sometimes triple that. He had been married three months before, and had three months to go until his 25th birthday. It tore me up, as well as my senior year. Things like that don't happen to me.

To me the world was very fair. I hated that day, the night that they were telling everyone he was still living. The hell I walked through for days before even thinking about returning to what was 'normal' and everything else that I learned. This incident made me feel like my world was thrown into a blender and then to make it worse whoever was in control turned it on high. Even now I don't want to believe that the world is so unfair, I don't want to believe that he wasn't there to see me walk across the stage at graduation, that he couldn't make faces at me while I smiled for my prom pictures.

I really want to believe that it is all a huge nightmare. Jacobs lets us all know that we have to get through this 'dog eat dog world' with our heads held high, and also by listening to the wisdom of our parents, grandparents, the wisdom of our families. In each essay we learn of ways that could hinder or help their individual or collective development. In Allegory of the Cave we learn that the society that the 'cavemen' live in is hindering their development.

They don't allow their counterparts the chance to develop into anything other than what the society wants. However in Free at Last Jacobs lets us know her feelings she lets her children know her feelings and guides them in the right direction, but she also lets them figure out on their own. She lets them learn for themselves and collectively make their own ideology. She allows for them to think for themselves, therefore she helps them in their development.