Cultures Defined by Religion - Essay Example

Our cultures are defined by religion, music, social habits and even the food we eat, the experiences we face and surrounding environments shape our beliefs into accumulation of knowledge that we choose to live by. Cultures originate from Small groups of people who decide to share their knowledge by communicating in a broad approach about their cultivated behavior. The way we live based on a general acceptance by the society we live in according to our behaviors and values is how culture is defined, these beliefs are passed down from generation to generation. It’s a general belief that people are defined by what they learn, our perceptions of society and what we choose to believe in or accept as the truth ultimately determines our nature. In this context Morrie is simply telling Mitch that it is upon him to create his own culture based on his behaviors and values, it is these aspects that define his nature and way of life. Consider the analogy of the monkey story; five monkeys exist in a forest. Inside this forest there is a river on the edge of the forest the separates these monkeys from a large banana plantation. When the monkeys saw this plantation, they tried to get across the river but drowned and failed. This happened every time they tried to get across the river and very soon the monkeys associated the banana plantation with drowning in the river. Therefore whenever any monkey tried to cross the river, all other monkeys would prevent is from trying to cross the river. With time when a monkey died, a new monkey was born that did not know anything about crossing the river. Thus this new monkey ultimately tried to cross the river, but it was attacked by the other monkeys. Tired of being attacked, the new monkey stopped trying to cross the river without questioning the real reason. This continued to happen every time a new monkey was born, however with time the original monkeys all died and were inherited with these new monkeys that were born in this manner. This established a social norm prohibiting against crossing the river to get bananas, and so it became the way of life that no monkey ever tried to cross the river to go to the banana plantation which explains how a culture is formed and defined, a belief in the acceptable and unacceptable values that are established to respond to crucial event but with time become acceptable ways of life. Levine approaches Stans problem showing him that there is a tendency for mans views to be altered when he faces death; we tend to ask ourselves whether we are leaving behind a legacy that will always remember us and the lives we lived. When faced with such questions we become consumed with questioning our own mortality, it is such a situation that Stan faces which Stephen tries to convince him as a normal concern that everyone faces when faced with mortality. Death speaks to us directly and personally more than any situation, only through guided meditations and reflections can we try to understand out mortality. Christ is constantly referenced with emphasis on the death of man as a sort of means bolstering the society he leaves in, one of the characters is portrayed as a man leading a quite life until he faces conviction for a crime he does not commit, at first he fights strongly against this unfair conviction but somehow finds solace and liberation eventually accepting it as spiritual rejuvenation. Morrie is a professor at the university who has spent his entire life teaching, he choose his career as a way of life only to realize the importance of sharing part of his lifes wisdom when he is threatened with Lou Gehrig disease that makes him begin losing control of his body. Furthermore Morrie has a strong desire to socialize and reach out to people using love as his main means of communication and interaction. He spends his time interacting with people and examining their ability to love, choosing to go against popular cultural beliefs to accept his disease and instead live and love his life to the maximum even though he continues to die. This has shaped him to be independent without the need to rely on others for even the basic needs while also refusing to be ashamed of his weaknesses, this is because his childhood was deprived of love and attention which has forced him to shape his live on love and physical affection from family and close friends. Ivans personality and major weakness is that he allows others to dictate how he should live his life instead of relying on his personal reasons and senses to lead his life. He blindly accepts the norms and beliefs of aristocratic societies because he is drawn to a high social standing, believing the he should conduct his lifestyle as someone with a high social standing. He has a belief that if he lives his life according to a set of preconceived guidelines, his life will move forward based on his plans in which he will find purpose and achievement and as such he is filled with an obsession of living a life of an etiquette upper class man taking a wife as a means of establishing his cultured aristocrat social status. His customs make him intolerant to anything that threatens to eliminate of invade his comfort and well being and as such he secludes himself from any influence that might discomfort him to the extent of resorting to work as an excuse to distance himself from his pregnant wife. He further seeks to avoid unwanted displeasing situations by reducing his relations to the extent of simulations based on self preservation which isolates him form the world and instead of he fulfillment he long sought, he only finds pain and displeasure. He represents a misguided personality with a upper class mentality based on materialism, he has shaped his life by restricting himself to the bourgeois lifestyle which has only left him dissatisfied and unfulfilled which only shows how a life void of human connections based on empathy and compassion for other is. After examining the mentioned titles, I chose Tuesdays with Morrie and The Death of Ivan Illyich because both books present unique characters with different abilities and weaknesses. In t1 the character known as Morrie leads a life of selfless belief in others which has shaped him to be social and approachable, however likeable he may seem this also manifests itself as a weakness because his desire to always seek the good in people makes him vulnerable to be taken advantage of by people who do not understand him, the book does not tell us how he has handled disappointments which leaves me to conclude that if he was to continually seek to see love in people, he might be disappointed if he only sees hate or other undesirable traits in them . Morrie lives an exemplary life because he chooses to live a positive life in spite of the negative situations that surround his life, even in the face of death he has chosen to continue living his life and continue to seek the good in people. From his background we understand that his childhood was characterized by abandonment which created a fear in him of always being alone, that’s why we see him dedicating his entire life to the profession of teaching so as to always surround himself with his students and the vibrant university campus life. We also see that because of the unpleasant life he lived as a child, he always strives to forget that experience by reaching out to those who are in somewhat similar situations that he experienced. Like in the situation of reaching out to celebrity Koppel who is consumed with his social status to even take notice of those around him; however Morrie is able to soften his heart by reaching out to him with a message of love. The same situation is repeated in the case of Mitch who is driven by greed and yet Morrie choose him as a sort of spokesman to spread his message through his “The Meaning of Life” works. The Death of Ivan Illyich presents a character Ivan who is consumed by his desires to emulate an upper class man social status that sees him endlessly pursue unattainable desires, his situation show a kind of deficiency that he might have experienced in childhood where he was probably bullied or under looked his age mates which created a burning desire to attain a social status that would sort of uplift him in society and make him receive praises from those who would admire him. Ivan personality and approach to life was unrealistic and completely unpractical in a way that he thought he could change who he was by being who he was not which made him pursue a false life that ended in frustrations due to unfulfillment. The extent to which his disillusion reached was unproductive in that it even made him abandon his matrimonial obligations like taking care of his pregnant life because he wanted to alienate himself from displeasing situations. His continued belief that he was different from others forced him to live a life of alienation that ultimately led to his death. It is from his character that I understand how important it is for one to have a self identity that not only describes who they are but also defines their value and beliefs, living a false life always leads to frustration because it does not define who you are and as such you are always conflicting with your own identity which frustrates your desires and is most likely to lead you to live a life of isolation as you seek to protect a way life that is not real and that will ultimately not last. References Mitch, A (1997). Tuesdays with Morrie. NY: Random House. Stephen, L (2010). Meetings at the Edge. Dialogues with the Grieving and Dying, the Healing and the Healed. NY:Knopf Doubleplay Tolstoy, L (2009). The Death of Ivan Illyich. MT:Kessinger. Rodney, S (1998). Lessons from the dying. MA:Wisdom Publications. Read More