The Quarry and the Lot by Mark Wallace - Essay Example

Ethnography Paper on the Quarry and the Lot Introduction A subculture is a set of distinguishing patterns and traitsthat differentiate a social group from the others within a given society or culture. In his book The Quarry and the Lot, Mark Wallace narrates a story between four friends reunited in their childhood suburb by the demise of their former friend, Joseph Klein. He explores the role that Joseph played in the four friends’ life and the impact of his death on their lives. The book tries to explain how the suburban subculture that Amelia, Luke and Nick grew up in differs from the city culture that they have currently embraced. It also tries to find answers to how Joseph Klein, once a bright, smart boy, became so unfortunate in life and eventually passed away at a very young age. This essay attempts to critically assess the subcultures in the Mark Wallace’s book and explicate on how it is difficult for someone from a different subculture to easily blend in. the fundamental question in this book is why Joseph was so different from the other four friends he had grown up with in a similar environment. How do we compare him to other dangerous, violent and ruthless boys from other subcultures and environments? How do we define grief when people were not able to cope with the deceased whist he was alive? Discussion How does a kid as bright and smart as Joseph Klein turn and become a violent, angry, destructive and a ruthless teenager who disregards authority? This is the question that troubles all the four friends in their interactions as they grew up and in their adulthood. This question does not only trouble the friends, but their parents too and the entire neighborhood. This is evident during Joseph funeral at the Quarry. There is a very big irony at this instance. Why are all these people attending Joseph’s funeral and yet they never regarded him as a friend but an enemy? This beats logic. Are they pretending to be in grief due to the sudden and mysterious death of Joseph? Or are they are truly in grief? Everyone present at this funeral literary had no clue as to what they were doing there (Wallace 11). Joseph grew up from a very humble family whose previous generations produced academicians. Amelia, Luke and Nick, are all trying to ponder how Joseph turned out to be such a monster. What subculture was he prescribing too? When he became an adult, he pushed everyone away from his life, ruthlessly bullied all his friends. It is although very confusing when Wallace aims to establish the impact and role of Joseph Klein in the other friends lives. All these people grew up in the same environment and were all defined by the same subculture. Luke turned out to be a teacher and a poet writer and Luke a furniture store owner. It is always assumed that society and its culture and doctrines shape people’s character and future behavior. It can be argued that past subcultures can influence behavior and character. What is happening is really changed by what we believe in and sometimes, things that look normal are actually frightening. This phenomenon might explain what happened to Klein Joseph. When people have lost touch and connection with the deceased, can they experience grief in its true form? The families and childhood friends of Joseph are sharing in grief of his departure. This seemingly looks quite surprising since most of the people at this funeral were never friends with the deceased and possibly do not know why they are there. This funeral is not a formal ceremony and thus no mourner(s) has attempted to pick the slack. They did not know how to express how they felt. These people supposedly hated and disliked Joseph for what he did to them as a neighbor. Mark Wallace manages to depict the nature of American suburbs. They tend to encourage some sense of belonging to a certain community. The ironical solidarity that his friends and parents who did not like him at all are trying to show is an example of how the suburbs are (Wallace 41). Did Joseph Klein in any way influence the lives of Luke, Nick or Emilia? While he turned out to be violent, dangerous and destructive, someone like Luke took up teaching and poetry. He teaches in a community-based college. He seems to be very dissatisfied with both teaching and poetry. He argues that, as much as writing is considered a hobby, something that a person prefers and likes doing in his own time, it is an art that it is done with the aim of letting the world know. He is very skeptical about very many things especially the environment where he was brought up in. If he were a real person, he would argue that, vocational as writing may be perceived is somewhat ridiculous. He claims that such perception would make writing look quite insignificant just as going fishing or making tables. This is also quite confusing since when Luke was in Washington, a different subculture, he considered writing to be more than just a hobby. He although seems to have no real stand since he later shifts goal posts as far as this issue is concerned. While talking to his father, he claims that writing is like a duty, the artist’s duty. He explicates that duty is about doing whatever you’re doing and then telling/informing people. You let them know since you want to initiate a conversation or communication. This is also because you want to sell to them. Nick on the other hand embraces furniture selling. This one of the aspects that Luke was talking about when defining writing and said they were insignificant. He is considered one of the smartest and balanced of all of them. He also possesses a blue condor, and it is what separates him from the rest of the group. Amelia is not left out either and her father is very abusive making her live in very uncomfortable places. She is a very dynamic girl and at the same time very sympathetic. Her character suits very well like the grabby boys. Her backstory feels to be as simple as it has. Of all these characters, none seems to be likable at first sight, he opts for the others (Wallace 32). Mark Wallace denounces American suburbs claiming that they encourage in genuine conformity and sense of belonging. He blames these misfortunes like those that befallen the Joseph Klein on such kinds of subcultures. Carefully evaluating certain subcultures here and there depicts a similar pattern of community like belonging and conformity. Comparing the behavior of other dangerous and violent boys from other environments with Joseph reveals a rather peculiar situation that further complicates the comparison questions. In other cultures, boys who turn up to like Joseph, violent and dangerous do not come from a humble family background of a generation of academicians. Neglect and abandonment is what can be used to explain the conditions under which these boys are brought up. This partly explains why they resort to violence and the other dangerous ways such as Nazi like approach when bullying other fellow co-workers. Past subcultures also play a part in influencing what direction teenage children take in such situations. The boys from other environments or cultures do not attack, terrorize or rob people of their own community/environment as it was Joseph’s case. They tend to terrorize people from other suburbs and new comers into their suburbs. Cases of dangerous boys in other suburbs are never isolated single case/individual like Joseph. Bad boys in such settings operate in groups referred to as gangs. These gangs are really very organized and do not practice violence only but also engage in income generating activities. Member of these gangs are also given life skills appertaining to hardship self-perseverance techniques (Wallace 76). This is what characterizes modern forms of suburbs, which are generally considered since a long time ago as places where people from the cities came to relax their muscles and get away from the busy noisy cities. With the advent and encroachment of real estate’s developers and offices into land mostly considered as community land erodes the whole essence of belonging and conformity. It is evident that subcultures change and/or influences many people’s futures and behavior. For instance, consider Luke who initially views writing and teaching as simply normal hobby-like activities. He later changes his conviction and beliefs about writing and poetry after being assimilated in a different culture in the Washington. This totally changes how he viewed and thus loved writing poetry and teaching. His interest on writing was rejuvenated when he considered writing as an artistic duty on whatever he or she is up to with the aim of letting the world know (Wallace 29). Subcultures in both ancient and modern American suburbs seem to be the same except for some little differences here and there. Consider the suburbs during times of Mark Wallace’s father, subculture uniquely identified a set of people who shared and prescribed to the same pattern of behavior. Dangerous and violent boys were also there in these subcultures. The minor differences are that, in the modern subcultures, dangerous and violent people do not terrorize their families and friends but focus on either foreigner from other subcultures. In the older subcultures and societies, dangerous, bad boys were mainly concerned with inflicting pain, suffering to people of their own subculture. This reduced their participation in active projects that were significant in culture developed (Wallace 65). It is argued that, joseph made his friends realize their weakness. How? The misfortunes of Joseph as an angry, violent and dangerous kid acted as a benchmark for parents while guiding their kids on what wrong and what is right for them do. We can conclusively argue that, he in his life changed significantly how the four friends related, behaved and carry out themselves to date. His sudden and mysterious death of Joseph was also another lesson to his friends whom he had otherwise hated him for no apparent reason. They realized the need of solidarity and importance of keeping tabs with one another. They learnt that in the death of someone you never liked, it is difficult to eel any sort of grief at all. This had really occupied their brain during the burial event where they all seem not know or understand their reason of being at that burial (Wallace 39). Subcultures encourage some sort of belonging and conformity. In one way or the other, they have a significant impact on a person’s life either directly or indirectly. We all belong to a given subculture either knowingly or unknowingly. We learn some great lessons in subcultures that if and when we understand well, shape our futures. It is very difficult for someone belonging to a different subculture, assimilated and does whatever is being done in a totally different subculture than his/her without problems. It is worth noting that subculture is also affected by time and changes in events. Something that may seem real and normal in a given generation under the same subculture may look very peculiar in another generation. Subcultures are dependent on time and are affected by what is happening. Considering the story of Mark Wallace’s grandfather regarding the Jaguar attacking their villages. In their generation, the Jaguar attacking the population is very high and quite real than in this generation where people live quite far from wild animal habitats such as forests (Wallace 34). Conclusion Suburban cultures are isolated and innocent from reality or the world. They are considered as a place where people who want to retire from the noisy cities op to go live. In The Quarry and the Lot, it is evident that in some way, Joseph made his friends possibly realize their weakness. People living in the suburbs do not face similar problems as those faced by people living in the cities do. This is because suburbs are considered to be the retreat-like place for people who want to get away from the buzzes and hassles of the cities go to relax. Has my mind changed concerning any aspect of the subculture? No. I believe that subcultures are important and a project like this can greatly help people have a deeper understanding of their social set-up and offer explanations as to why they behave in certain ways. Reference Wallace, Mark. The Quarry and the Lot, BlazeVOX, (2011). Read More