A Family's Impact on Individuals and Community
A family is the building block of any society, and its success or failure has a significant effect on individual members and community as a whole. Dr. King and Wiesel demonstrate the relationship dynamics by examining different family experiences. This paper will also give an account of my experience with value and complications of family.
Striving for Fair Treatment
In several occasions, I have strived to ensure my family gets fair and equal treatment before me either in school or the community. In my experience in school, there are often subgroups that discriminate others as a result of a popularity contest. However being the experienced elder sister, I ensured my younger siblings get a fair shot at all the activities they want to engage without discrimination. Wiesel in his book Night also demonstrates the search for decent treatment of prisoners in the concentration camp. The book shows how prisoners strive to hold on to their families pointing out that for somewhat kept them alive was the assurance of the safety of their family (Wiesel).
The Conflict of Self-Preservation and Love for Family
However, it's not easy keeping your family interest first; some challenges force people to concentrate on themselves. As observed later in the book a significant conflict arises between self-preservation and love for family as prisoners suffering intensifies. It reaches a point where others would sacrifice their own family for food "Elie saw the savage instinct in people who would destroy their own family for food" (Wiesel). In Wiesel account characters faces complication with regards to love and loyalty to family Eliezer personal conflict is an example as during one of his low moments he perceives his father as a burden and a threat to his survival. Eliezer struggles to overcome these thoughts and uphold his value for his father in the midst of suffering personally I have had to choose between joining a school of my choice far away from home and just going to a nearby school so that I can be close to my family. It may not be a life-wrecking situation, but the experience was challenging as I had to choose my family over my future and happiness.
The Value of Family in Society
Dr. King further voices the value of family in his letter from Birmingham jail he employs imagery giving the audience a visual illustration of complications of family. He uses family in a move to gain an emotional appeal to the white moderates who hold strong family values. One example is the story of a young girl who has just seen an advertisement about fun town on television and asks her father if she can go, but the father has to blatantly tell their kid its closed to children of color. King explains that such experience forces a child to grow up feeling inferior and hateful because of having a darker complexion than her peers (King and Graham). In this text, we see that the child ethnicity and race is a source of discrimination complicating her life and experience. This experience will shape her decisions and perception of the world around her.
Influences on Personal Opportunities
In my own experience growing up in a middle-income family influenced the opportunities in my life from school to the community. In school, some kids from affluent backgrounds were discriminatory of other kids and would only take part in activities with children from their class. There are places our family could not go because it was expensive and just for the affluent this complicated my experience as a child and led to low self-esteem. It took me years to accept that my experience should not confine me but instead propel me to do better. By recognizing my individual's strength, I was able to go above my family constraints and made something worthwhile of myself.
The Struggle Between Personal and Family Interests
Families are very crucial to society their success or failure of families means success or failure of community. King and Wiesel in their narrative demonstrate how family experience plays a significant role in an individual’s life outcome. Consequently, both readings prove that there is always going to be a struggle between personal interest and family interest. The importance of family on several occasions supersede individual concern however in some cases pain and suffering have led people to be selfish. Despite the complication that comes with from being from a particular family it is essential to appreciate the uniqueness of each family and the strength found in togetherness.
References
Wiesel, Elie. The Night Trilogy. New York: Hill and Wang, 2008. Print.
King, Martin Luther, and Dion Graham. Letter From Birmingham Jail. Escondido, Calif.: Mission Audio, 2013. Print.
