The Individual in Society Pre-Reflection

1. When humans are in isolation, they go crazy.  We need people around us to share our feelings, emotions, opinions, and everything in between with.  One example of this from our readings so far this year is in Twelfth Night  by Shakespeare when Malvolio is isolated in a cell for being crazy even though he knows that he is sane.  However after a short amount of time alone, he begins to question if he really is crazy like everyone seems to believe.
2. In order to feel human,  individuals need relationships, connections, feelings/emotions,  happiness, a "fulfilling life," and a purpose in life (can be self-determined).  This question reminds me of the whole unit from freshman year "What do we need in order to live a fulfilling life?" and one of my all time favorite projects that I've done in school was my dream board.  The dream board demonstrates what we need in order to feel human because it shows everything that we desire in life to feel "normal" and live life (as a human).
3. When we don't take responsibility for our actions, we face all kinds of consequences.  A big consequence that many people face is internal guilt, which can continuously eat away at a person until their weak and can't do anything anymore.  A real life example of this that many teenagers face is when their parents get mad at them for doing something wrong and instead of punishing the teen, the parent says they are simply "disappointed" with whatever the problem seemed to be.  This is worse than physically facing your actions because you cant really make up for or fix whatever you did wrong, you are just left feeling bad about yourself.
4. A lack of compassion and understanding leads to prejudice and stereotyping.  A perfect example of this is from the book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it."  You need compassion and understanding to comprehend the different things that different people may be going through to avoid stereotyping and prejudices when you dont really even know what is going on.