REHUGO

Christian Hayley

2/9/11

English 3AP

Mr.Soeth

REHUGO-Analysis: Universal Truth

A.   

1.      “It takes a village to raise a child”           

2.      “What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.”

            The first aphorism is a popular one that was originally an African proverb, however the true author cannot be found, this proverb was brought over by the slaves and translated into English over time. This aphorism also was used by several authors: Jane Cowen-Fletcher in “It Takes a Village”, Hillary Rodham-Clinton in “It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us”, and Harper Collins in “Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events: The Vile Village”.

            The second aphorism is by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. an American author born in 1922.

B.                The first quote refers to the simple fact that it is impossible for one person alone to raise a child it takes a community as a whole to shape and mold that child into an adult ready to take on the world. Without this community, the parent raising the child would be put under quite a lot of stress, and the child will become something that was not originally intended. The community as a whole can do two things, either help or hinder the child’s development, but this community can change and alter based on simple things such as ethnicity, location, and language.

   The second quote refers to the young people of today and of all things they can do community is the best choice. By stating that community is the best choice for the young people of society, Vonnegut implies that they are actually doing something that isn’t communal that creates loneliness in others and needs to be fixed, or in his words “cured”.

C.     Both of these aphorisms relate to our society as a whole today, however while one addresses a problem in a certain group the other addresses the community as a whole and how they impact an individual’s life.  The first aphorism relates to individuals communities they no matter what they do they will affect someone in some way, shape, or form. There are both positive and negative aspects of this one being that a person can be driven to the brink of insanity by a foul community driving him to do all the wrong things or the community can relate to  him its experiences and he learn from those experiences thus making his life easier and more enjoyable. The second aphorism relates to society a little bit more, because of the fact that there is a seeming class warfare going on among young people of today. Young people of today normally focus on who’s the most popular at school, who’s the cutest, and who’s the weirdest, however by classifying these people as such either lose or gain popularity. Generally speaking, the young people that aren’t popular are lonely and outcasts, these outcasts sometimes band together and create their own community but this is only because they know and understand the need to “cure the disease of loneliness”. By daring to be different and daring to create a stable community at places such as high school, adolescents create environments for themselves that they may not have elsewhere, or aren’t able to have elsewhere, they also instill within them a sense of belonging that all young people yearn for.