Monday, November 19, 2012
Judgment
In Linda Hogan's novel Power, Omishto's life is turned upside down when she is accused of aiding Ama in the killing of a panther, an endangered species. Everyone from her classmates to her fellow church members to her parents are quick to blame her, but none of them knew why she and Ama killed the panther. Everyone found it so easy to blame her, yet none of them took the time to understand the reason behind her actions. This made me think of our society, and how we are so pron to judge people that we know so little about. We make opinions based on their actions, lifestyle, looks, intelligence, social standing, wealth, ect., but none of us take the time to understand people. Power shows it's readers that there is a distinct difference between appearance vs. reality, by having its protagonists judged by their community. The way to avoid judgment is to withhold opinions until you understand the entire situation, and both sides of the story.
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I completely agree with you that our society is too quick to judge in many cases. Although the court system insists that all suspects are “innocent until proven guilty,” I think sometimes it’s the opposite, “guilty until proven otherwise” just because someone may ‘look’ like a criminal. Similar to what we talked about in our Common Experience activity, we all make one-stories for different people based on their appearance. Instead, we need to be more open-minded about people, especially since the US is becoming a more diverse country.
ReplyDelete"This is like the saying, there is more than meets the eye." People judge people, in the eye of the law or not. It is in our nature, but sometimes people can be very harsh. I 100% agree with your statement that we need to understand people, especially in social situations, before we jump to conclusions. 9 times out of 10, it would make both of the peoples' lives easier.
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