The Individual Tackling Society

Amahd Young

Ms. Parham

AP La+C

January 14, 2015

​Everyone in this room may agree that at one point in your life you questioned your role in society as an individual. Maybe you’ve always seen it as you were the ant or test subject surrounded by things and people who would predict your life and future, but what if I told you it’s the opposite? What if it is up to you to predict society’s future and your own life only being influenced by the things society has to offer. There are many ways in which society can shape the individual and there are ways in which the individual can shape society. Society and the individual will always have a gap but the question you have to ask yourself is; is it up to me or is it up to society to bridge that gap? 

The individual can be seen at the puppet master of society, holding all the strings that are connected to society itself. The puppet master creates the show and is able to make his/her own ending and beginning with little limitations. The individual is able to let go both metaphorically and literally, as the control is not in society’s hands, it’s in the individuals. 

Although the individual is capable of holding the power over society, society can still influence the individual as it already has done to most of you at a very young age. Society has impacted your individuality because of the way you grew up viewing your surroundings which set or instilled certain images and situations in your mind. Based on psychology, these images and situations is what you build your life around, comparing everything to the standards society set for you as a child and the standards it is still setting for you as I speak. However as an individual it is up to you to let “the wilderness rise up to you” (Wallace Stevens). Do not become “grey and bare” because of society because you’re capable of taking on society and shaping it to your liking.

So the next time you have a moment to yourself and you’re thinking about your place in society make sure you know that itis your choice to let society shape you or whether you are going to shape society.