Expert: Alice J. Bogert - 10/12/2008

Question
Hi, I'm in year 10 and I was wondering if you could help me fix up my speech for english. I'd really appreciate all the beneficial crticism that will help my speech, and i'd love it if you could help me fix it up. Thank you so much.

Task:
You are to write a 3-4 minute speech in response to the following statement:
‘When it comes to the individual’s actions, society is to blame.’
To what extent do you agree with this statement? Support your answer with close reference to the text you have studied this term: The Catcher in the Rye or Looking for Alibrandi AND two pieces of your own material.
Marking Criteria: You will be marked equally on the areas of concept, synthesis, analysis/technique, expression, and form(speech delivery, eye contact, volume, clarity.)

When it comes to the individual’s actions, society is to blame

Good Morning/Afternoon class
Today I’m here to talk to you discuss the extent of blame we should place on the society for the actions we take as individuals. I’ll do this using the book ‘Looking for Alibrandi’ by Melina Marchetta, ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ by Mark Twain and ‘Raw’ by Scott Monk.

Looking for Alibrandi is a contemporary novel about a 17 year old catholic girl, Josephine Alibrandi, who is in her final year at school. This year her life is turned upside down when her father comes into her life for the first time, her close friend commits suicide, family secrets come out and she encounters love. During the course of the novel she has to deal with issues such as illegitimacy, racism and class differences at school and the way she reacts to these issue is the focus of my speech today.

The strained relationship between Katia and Josie is a result of Josie being unable to respect her grandmother due to her grandmother blindly following the stereotypical Italian culture. This strain is obvious when Josie says “Maybe that’s what I dislike about Nonna” referring to her grandmother blindly following the traditional Italian culture. Here we blame the society for imposing this view that illegitimacy is shameful and disgraceful, and as a result causing Katia, who has lived most of her life by the society’s rules and regulations, to feel ashamed of her illegitimate grand-daughter and consequently cause the unhealthy relationship between Katia and Josie.  

The death of Josie’s close friend John Barton is a very good example of when society should be blamed for the individual’s actions. In the novel John Barton handles his feelings of isolation and inadequacy as he was unable to fulfill father’s expectations by committing suicide.

This incidence emphasizes the idea that the society was to blame for his actions because they have labeled John Barton as the one who will be his father’s successor, this is quite clear when he says "Do you think they voted me school captain because they wanted me? Get real. They knew I was going to be school captain in Year 7 because every other Barton had been one." The society in this case consisting of his parents, his school and those who knew him and the values and expectations they had enforced upon him. He is unable to handle this pressure and so responds to it in a radical fashion.

Another example of the society trying to enforce their values on a character and as a result provoking him to do something radical is seen in the The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is about is story about a boy without a family who teams up with a black slave and journeys down the Mississippi River in search for the slave’s freedom, and the boy’s independence in his escape from society.   During the course of the book Huck matures and becomes more independent, finds a strong ally in the slave; Jim and learns a variety of life lessons and improves as a person by challenging the society’s beliefs.

Huck’s actions of running away from home attracts attention to the society’s fault of imposing stereotypical views of what a ‘good boy’ is and as a result causing Huck to feel a sense of confinement, when Widow Douglas – who feels it’s up to her to change Huck – imposes these views upon Huck.This is seen when Huck says "Miss Watson would say, "Don't put your feet up there, Huckleberry;" and "Don't scrunch up like that, Huckleberry -- set up straight…why don't you try to behave?”. In order to escape from the confinement he felt from the enforcement of these views he ran away from home. So once again society and its views are blamed for the action an individual takes.   

So by now you probably have the idea that society is to be blamed for all of the actions of an individual. However, this too is wrong as we see in the book ‘Raw.” Raw is about a young offender, Brett Dalton, who is sent to a detention centre to reform and attain a second chance in life.
The detention centre called ‘The Farm’, is a facility that aims to turn young offender’s lives around, by reforming them. The Farm works on the principals of care, trust and responsibility, with the parent figures of Sam and Mary. Throughout the novel we see Brett trying to resist reforming by continuously protesting against the rules through smoking, stealing from other inmates, running away and showing an arrogant attitude towards The Farm.

In this book we see that society is not to be blamed for Brett’s action, instead the events that have occurred in Brett’s personal life, such as the constant quarrelling, the divorce of his parents as a result of their unhappy marriage is what has caused him to be rebellious and troublesome.

The society’s innocence is seen quite clearly when Brett is trying to run away from the Farm and Sam catches him, and instead of forcing him to go back to the farm Sam offers Brett a lift. We see from this that the society, consisting of people such as Sam and Mary, are trusting and are there to lend a hand to help Brett change his ways, and so are not to be blamed. His family has influenced him severely, he has not only started to believe that the whole world is against him but is also unable to listen to authority, this point is illustrated when he says “Nobody likes me. I don’t want to go to class. And there are too many rules.”

In conclusion, we see that although most of the times society is to be blamed for the actions of individuals, after all an individual is a product of it’s environment, the person’s background and the way they are nurture also plays a great part to the way they react to different situations.

Answer
Dear Jas,

I don't do homework assignments.  Your teacher gives those assignments to see how much you know, where your strengths and weaknesses lie.  For me to make corrections, changes, would show your teacher what I know which would be a serious disservice to you.

Education is not getting all your assignments right or collecting as many A's as you can.  It's about learning; broadening your mind and brain power and adding to your fund of knowledge.

Mistakes are one of the best teachers for future success.  One has to break a few eggs to make mayonnaise.  Don't be afraid to break a few eggs.  

Take care.  Good luck on your speech.

Alice J. Bogert