"But one's got to make the effort," she said, sententiously, "one's got to play the game..."(43)
In life, it is impossible to escape the surprised and somtimes accusing looks of people when you have acted in a manner that you are not expected to. Depending on your staus in life, the family you were born into, or simply the society you live in, there are always expectations. However, many individuals are guilty of not wanting to follow all or certain of those expectations for one reason or another. Lennina Crowne is one of those individuals. I am one of those individuals. We don't mean any harm by not abiding by the rules. We simply want to be unique or deep inside we don't feel that those expectations fit our being. In Brave New World, Lennina is expected to be promiscuous and sleep around with many guys. She doesn't feel like doing this but her friend Fanny convinces her that she must "make the effort and play the game" because if she doesn't she will get in trouble. That is the same in life, even if we don't like it, we must play the game until we are sure that we can finally emancipate ourselves from it. This was my problem a few years back when I used to be forced to go to church. I hated church and wanted nothing to do with it so I rebeled and instead of being a good boy, as was expected from a child who had been raised in church, I decided to not care anymore and do whatever I wanted. It was all great for me until I realized the reputation I was giving my parents. Therefore I decided to play the game and while I was still forced to go to church I was a "good boy" in the presence of the christian comunity until about a year ago that my parents stopped forcing me to go. I still act in good manners in their presence so that they won't think that my parents raised a demon, but when they are gone I am the same old Kevin. One's got to play the game, perhaps not fully, but just enough to get by in a world full of expectations.
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I like your blog Kevin. I agree that in whichever society you are in you have to play by the rules or play the game the way it is supposed to because like in your case your family or yourself will be judged. I think it's interesting that people are manipulated and change their ways sometimes just to content the people that are only judging you and don't really care about you. Like in Lennina and your case Kevin, both of ya'll did something you didn't want to do because someone tells you to or expects it from you. Good blog though and I agree with you I just thought it was interesting why people change for people that don't care about you but they want society to stay the same.
ReplyDeleteIt is clear that expectations for everyone are everywhere from the day we come to light, though they may very as to what is expected of one depending of social class hierarchy. I strongly agree with you on that and understand how much of a nuisance it can be. I also see the "game" you are "playing. However, there we come with a disagreement. Though expectations are made for us from day one, I don't think our goal should be to meet them. I don't think, essentially, being inauthentic in your behavior to fit the public or people who set the expectations' views is the right way to solve this problem. In fact, the problem is not solve, instead, deferred or pushed aside. All this does is, maybe, please the expectation setters but what about you? Why should you do something you don't want to whether it be you simply dislike it or it goes against your morals? Don't you think you deserve to set your own expectation? After all, you are the one doing all of the work to satisfy the expectations.
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