Individual and Collective Responsibility in the Society - Assignment Example

Essay 2 (Sherman Alexie Casebook) Portrayal of both individual and collective responsibility in the society A societyis a group of diverse peoples all living peacefully with one another in a geographically identified area. In his book, War Dance, Sherman Alexie develops an ideal society by portraying the daily endeavors that people encounter as they go about their business. In the perpetuation of peace and social stability, every entity in the society must perform specific individual and communal responsibility, which Sherman addresses effectively in his book through characterization.

In developing the roles, he portrays the two genders differently thus labelling different gender roles thus developing an effective viewpoint to the society.In developing his society, Alexie uses the ordinary people in any other society such as fathers, sons, husbands, laborers and artists among many others. He develops a perilous poise between external responsibility and self-preservation through family, art and the entire world through by extrapolation. “Yes the kid was a descent athlete, yet the kid was a descent yes the kid was a decent person.

But he had broken into my house” Alexie 14. The adults interact with the children effectively and in a bid to create a peaceful and cohesive society, they must maintain a sense of order by addressing such social vices and deterrence to peace as theft, which the author portrays here. He develops a good child who epitomizes the desirable qualities, but due to lack in the society and poor upbringing, the child breaks into other people’s houses and steal. The society must develop ways of punishing and rectifying such.

Relations and interactions exist at different levels in the society. In their relations, the characters maintain the decorum that is mandatory in the development of a cohesive society. In portraying the relationship among the character, Alexie develops the balance between self-portrayal and external responsibility by defining the specific individual and communal role. At family levels, the characters maintain a level of intimacy required of couples by sharing fundamental information that sustains such relationships, “My wife paused before answering, and in the pause I heard all the doubt and fear.

So I got out of bed, dressed and left the house” (Alexie 15). Alexis develops communal responsibility as that which everyone must maintain in order to achieve a desirable and society in which people observed laws and maintained the social order “But this time when those black people walked in slow motion in front of mei did not smile or laugh. I just stared back at them. I knew I would hit the glass and slam it into them maybe hurt them, maybe even kill them” (Alexie 16).Alexie also develops a distinction between the male and female roles in the society,, unlike sex which refers to the male and female distinction, gender is a cultural and social concept which distinct between the two by developing diverse social roles for each.

In the society Alexi creates, the two are distinct, “ My sons and I were going to enjoy a boys’ week filled with unwashed socks REI rock climbing and ridiculous hip of pasta” (Alexie 22) implying that women did the laundry. Despite the distinction in the bender roles, Alexie develops a liberal society in which both the males and females had equality and enjoyed the same social features and responsibilities thus contributing to the creation of the cohesive society “ Their mother had left for Italy with her mother two days ago” (Alexie 22).

Work citedSherman, Alexie. War Dances. New York: Grove Press, 2009. Print.