The topic I picked to analyze is the difference in socio-economic status. As we had to pick two stories, I read all the stories in a row and to my astonishment, I realized that 13 of the students in this class, including me, chose the same thing to talk about. We all shared our experience of the moment when we realized that there are people who are different from us. We all shared the moment when we realized our blessings and thought of how scarce wealth and income can be for people.
i) Normative Narrative
I am shocked and proud at the same time by seeing the same message in all thirteen stories. Although I had to pick only two stories, these all thirteen stories are describing that this Normative Narrative is solid and is not going anywhere. I have picked Amberlee’s story and Brooklyn’s story for reference here. My story is also available for reference.
The Normative Narrative I found is the most satisfying to be found, that “we all as humans are humble, caring and considerate people. We all are basically good people ” who see the problems of others and who can realize the privileges we benefited from. It all takes a moment of realization where we are standing and where other people are standing. This realization fills our hearts with humbleness and makes us thankful for our blessings. I love that we should not lose faith in humanity as we still have humanity around us. Amberlee’s story is about her visit to Paris, which itself seems a lifetime opportunity to many people. She has the feeling of her being privileged and then seeing the homeless people gives her sadness and fear. She says that she saw some homeless person holding a banner saying “This sidewalk is all I can provide for my family, my children haven’t eaten in two days.”She says “This tugs on my heart string and makes me feel a sense of humbleness”.
Brookyn’s story is about when she went to Saskatoon for some shopping and there she sees an actual homeless person. She says that she heard her whole life verses like” There are people starving in this world” and “ Some people don’t have a roof over their head like you” I want to convey Kudos to her family for instilling such good thoughts in her mind. But it was the first time she saw an actual homeless person. She says “The real shock of my advantage in socioeconomic status came to me when I first witnessed an example of this in real life.” She also says “there are people who don’t get to have any of the things you do”.
In my story, I wrote that my eyes tear up when I saw 2 kids eating an apple from garbage and I think of the fuss I made, not having the style of egg I like. These all three stories show that we all were shocked and touched by the people who got less than us in this world and realized the privileges we have. These stories prove the normative narrative I picked that “we all as humans are humble, caring and considerate people. We all are basically good people ”
Anyhow, I also found this normative narrative that “none of us actually was able to help anyone we found in need.” We all felt bad for them, we all felt a need to help them, but we all carried on to our life after having a short patch of sadness. Is this true that we all are so indulged in our lives that we just want to live our own lives in peace and feel that there would be someone else to help who is responsible for the change? Will we all be waiting for a magical power to come to the relief of the people of earth? If we need an Ice Capp for ourselves, we go out ourselves to get it, but on seeing someone in need, why do we think that someone else is supposed to do it? Do we feel that it is not the need for “ourselves”? Or maybe we are not shown or taught the ways we could have helped them. I would quote from my story that “I am looking back and watching the kids sharing their apple and laughing. “ You can see that I am not doing anything, I am just watching. I will look at Amberlee’s story “I see that my social class is evident, but I don’t know how to respond or react to it” .“This makes my head hurt so I push these questions away and load the bus home.” I see the “want” to help but most of us do not know how we can help and how badly people need OUR help.
Brooklyn’s story also says “as we get closer to him, I am unsure of how to act around this man.” and it ends like “I ponder the question as to whether or not anybody will help him fix his life ” Same as other stories, we all did the same thing, regardless of age when we went through this realization.
I kept on thinking about what could have been done, then I went through this coursebook Pg 182 line 7, “There is a relationship between talking about issues and the ability to address them. Silence has never made interventions possible. “ And then I realized how important all the talks are, which we are doing in class. It is very important to talk about situations, problems and solutions. It opens the doors of the mind and invites us to think for a solution.
ii) Creating counter-stories: Disrupting normative narratives
In Erin’s story, I saw my myth busted. In this story, she is talking about a time when she helped someone with her own money. She says “ the $10 bill was given back to my dad, insisting it was too much. Instead of confusion entering my mind, I was struck with guilt. I walked up to the bellhop, handing him $10 of my own money that I’ve been saving and walked away. My mom and dad shared a smile with one another and gave me a hug, almost squishing my elementary sized body. I looked up, “he needs it more than I do”. “
I saw that she, even at a young age, did not leave the person as she found them. She gave him a 10 dollar bill and was aware that the poor person needed money more than her. Kudos to you Erin !!
I found that she disrupted the normative I was discussing going along your way and leaving people behind. She, at her young age, took a great step, recognizing the need to jump up in a situation and help even when they were reluctant to accept help. It is a great example of finding the need and acknowledging your job to help yourself instead of waiting for others to do it. I felt that this should be done at all times. I thought that we should be conveying this message to our youth that our wealth would not decrease by giving …ever. I have seen people getting more after giving. We need to talk about it more to our young generation and tell them about the needs of people. We should also talk about what our response should be, if we see someone in need with our young generation.
And after that I read this article online, It’s an interesting article telling us a way he thought to help people in the long run. He says “I fall somewhere in the middle of the two extremes – making this my small part of the re-democratization of wealth.” I bet If we try we can find a lot of ways to help people in need. We need to talk about the need and look for options to help people and satisfy our inner selves.
ECS110 