Summary:
The book "Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul" can be analyzed with a sociological perspective through three stories of life, love, and learning. These are "Gabby You're Sooo Skinny ", "Last Wish", and "Anne."
The book "Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul" can be, by its many stories, analyzed
with a sociological perspective. Here, three stories of life, love, and learning will be analyzed,
these are "Gabby You're Sooo Skinny ", "Last Wish", and "Anne."
" Gabby You're Sooo Skinny " is a story involving the Symbolic-Interaction Paradigm,
also taking on micro-level orientation. In this story a young girl, Gabby, is inspired by a friend to
watch her weight more closely. As a result of the closer watch of her weight she lost five pounds,
she then received very flattering comments from many of her peers at school. With the comments
having gone straight to her head she soon wondered what input she would receive if she lost ten
pounds; mind you she weighed one-hundred twenty-five pounds to start with. Her reduction
from a small one-thousand calorie diet to a five-hundred calorie diet is what started her down the
road to anorexia, as she sadly testifies. Gabby no longer receiving compliments concerning her
weight loss because of her exaggerated take on dieting. In which, sometimes, she would go two or three days without eating or would feel too fat after going a day with only one apple, worried family members and friends. Gabby, after an eye-opening experience with her father, discovered she hated herself and because of that she had become anorexic.
This story takes a micro-level orientation tact of the Symbolic-Interaction Paradigm because it shows that the cause of the young Gabby's anorexia was her need to please the crowd because of her interaction with the society within her school. John J. Macionis' book entitled "Sociology" (the sixth edition) states that society is constructed "Through the human process of finding meaning in our surroundings, we define our identities, rights, and obligations toward others." Gabby felt that she needed to please the society to which she belonged and also very insecure of herself as she searched for her identity based on the praise and approval of others. Her experience with society is what drove her to develop her personality which was needy and dependent. Gabby's lack of social perspective made her believe that the society she knew was what mattered in making key decisions in her life. If Gabby had possessed a good sociological perspective she would probably have noticed her problem before it became serious and helped others, as to help her community.
"Last Wish" is a story, from a Social-Conflict Paradigm viewpoint, about a sixteen year old high school football player, named Chris Hart, with osteogenic sarcoma who entered a contest to receive three wishes. These three wishes were to receive a stereo system for his truck, the other to see a Dallas Cowboys football game, and last to date a redhead. The daughter of a minister, Christi Galloway, who upon hearing Chris's story compassionately decided that she would participate as his date, according to his last wish. Feeling apprehensive she asked a friend to tag along on the date. Quickly they became friends and stayed at each others houses after school to talk to each other about problems and listen to music. The town newspaper getting wind of this news did a story showing a picture with a caption stating that the two dated. Her popular peers taking advantage of this made fun of her with such comments as: "Hey, I guess that guy couldn't find anybody better to date.." Despite all the comments they went to prom together. Shortly after prom Chris died proclaiming his love to Christi.
This story clearly depicts the Social-Conflict Paradigm as the type of society present in the town where the characters live. The story shows that Chris's life is in an unequal distribution of power, because of his sickness. He's excluded from sports and receives a lucky break with a girl because of his entering of a contest. Christi begins with a good social perspective as she agrees to the date before even seeing the guy and before being allowed to judge him based solely on his physical appearance. Christi's popular, senior peers made fun of her for her relationship with Chris thus causing her to want to end her friendship with Chris, this shows a power held over her because of the social class of her peers. Although they rise above society's criticisms the beginning of their relationship was almost the end of their relationship because of the
Social-Conflict Paradigm's apparent force in their town's society.
The last story, "Anne", shows the Symbolic-Interaction Paradigm in effect. Anne a vivacious teenager ignored the grim and harsh reality of life in Nazi Germany and wrote stories about elves, bears, dwarves, how the sun felt on her face, ping-pong, and she also spent a whole page in her diary about her first kiss. Her very real detachment from reality drove her, Anne Frank, to write one of the most popular books of all time, her journal, "Anne Frank."
Anne didn't seek her identity according to her surroundings but rather hid it and ignored it and let her mind run wild within her literary works. She was definitely a product of her interaction with the society in which she lived, however, she didn't follow the path of many and instead acted as if the world she lived in wasn't real or fictitious and created a world of her own. This separation from reality is witnessed within the diary she wrote which was published in many different translations and distributed world-wide. She had a micro-level orientation view on,life as she focused on her own experiences in life and disregarded the rest of the world's problems, hardships, and tribulations.
In conclusion the three stories "Gabby You're Sooo Skinny ", "Last Wish", and "Anne" succeeded in portraying a very real vision of society. Also, the writers of these stories are testimony to the fact that the paradigm of society can change dramatically depending on periods of time, location. In the eyes of the people who suffer discrimination or are labeled minorities, society changes from paradigm to paradigm depending on their, victim, location. These three stories are very sad and real views on society via their challenging and inspiring life stories.
This is the complete article, containing 1,026 words
(approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page).
