Jay Macleod's Aint No Making It - Book Report/Review Example

 Jay Macleod's Aint no Making it Aint no Making It is Jay Macleod's projection of the social, behavioral concepts that define the human mind's development in relation to exposure and conceptions. This report makes reference to 'the human mind' because it is the point from which mental representations are made, and beliefs influenced. As such, Jay's analysis examines the resilience and resistance that the human mind can develop, or its nature of submission when subjected to different environmental conditions. That is so because social behavior is the resultant psychology of interacting with the environment. Projections in the book have been divided into three sections, with factions dedicated to the Hallway Hangers, who are white kids and other factions to the teenage African American brothers. The presentation covers the influence of their mental conceptions on the progress of their financial growth. The two groups are used to illuminate the social conceptions that are developed in the American societies, and how they effect into the aggression that get developed by the young. Application of social theories in the analysis of the development of the kids highlights that the society plays the biggest roles in the manipulation of the psychology of children. Moreover, it also becomes apparent that exposure is very important in the development of children as constant life within the same places inspires conceptions that are limited to the factors with which they interact. Accordingly, convincing a child who has interacted with the same challenges during growth and development to teenage, that other challenges can be solved is almost impossible. More so, it becomes more of a total enigma if they have never seen the lesser challenges that they are exposed to get tackled. Sociological Concepts in the Book Defeatism Also known as pessimism, the concept implies the total surrender with which persons face the challenges that compound their lives. It is the acceptance of a situation, however terrible it may be, and the belief that no action can be taken to transform the transpiring elements/activities. Defeatism implies that the subject in question puts up no fight whatsoever. It is common in situations that involve children who, as mentioned above, have been exposed to the same challenges repeatedly and have never managed to overcome them. However, the reason for their failure to get any positive results is the approach with which they handle the problems, an approach that in common situations, has been corrupted by the environment. The environment may imply personalities within the neighborhood who mention how hopeless it is to attempt a solution. The hallway hangers are the characters who exhibit defeatism in extreme situations. They are a group of peers who negatively influence each other, and based on their observations from the environment; they have psychologically resigned to the so-called 'fate.' The alienation that the society has been subjected to has led to their bitter feeling and relegation to criminal activities. It is clear that the hallway hangers are not the first generation that has been subjected to the problems, and that the psychological conceptions have been rounded up from the analysis of the past generation's experiences. In a sense, they have accustomed themselves to failure, a fact that is illuminated when JM interviews them when they are still teenagers. In the interview, Stoney states that he thinks that the future has no place for him, and there is the highest of the probabilities that he would be dead before twenty years. Boo-Boo recons that he has no desire to think about the future while Shorty thinks that his criminal activities will have probable taken him to jail. There is a great contrast to the elements of the hallway hangers' interview when compared to the African American brothers who express optimism and resilience against the problems that they face. Super, Craig, Mike, and Juan so believe that their challenges have a cause that they can alter with a better course. They cherish the elements of the American dream that recognize that all dreams are valid and can be achieved. Having recognized their setbacks, the brothers have laid out a plan, and the plan entails going to school. In the first of their interviews, they show that they have aspirations that would see them get good jobs and have live comfortable lives. The confidence with which the statements are made projects the beliefs that the boys have, and the proof that they are probably acting in the course of their dreams (Dillon, 2010). Generational Mobility The book also projects the concepts of generational mobility which is the transition of generations to different social classes. It is the resultant of the struggles and aspirations to better the elements of life. Often, it is caused by the loathing of a situation, and the belief that there are mechanisms that can get employed to change the status quo. In a society, it can be influenced by the appreciation, encouragement and mentoring of the young generations to create in them the desire to emulate certain figures, and to attain certain elements of success. According to Appelrouth and Edles (2008), it would entail convincing youngsters that life is like a wrestling game, and the determined players always win. In his book, Jay analyzed how life and its circles had affected the mentality of the two groups of boys. The hallway hangers had not been subjected to any circumstance that inspired their drive to succeed. They exhibit the characteristics of an uninspired social group that has instead, been exposed to elements that corrupted their thinking. When asked about any dream job, Jinks' response, which indicates that he has no interest in any particular job, shows that he has never thought about work in a serious way. To him and his counterparts, work is the mechanism through which money is created, and there is no specification of the mechanism. The lack of desire in this generation indicates how lack of positive influence would make the development of a society static. However, the other brothers, who are also from a poor community, express the desire to lead different lives when they mature. When asked about the future, Juan specifies that he desires to live in a regular home with all the elements that he has always desired. At the later stages of the book, the boys are projected as grownups with responsibilities, partial dreams, and lives. Though not all of them get great jobs, they manage to drag themselves from the abject poverty of their childhood neighborhood. Juan, in particular, gets an affordable mortgage, and a great wife, some of the elements that he so desired. Considering their progress, the brothers might probably inspire their children to follow the precepts of setting higher standards. That implies their generation lines will keep improving and a some point; total success may be registered. Male Figures as Mentors and Models During the first interviews, the hallway hangers' talks reveal that there are no male figures in their lives. They are probably dead, in prison or at places that show dejection and the resignation to the challenges and enigmas that couple life. Seemingly, that has been the trend in that neighborhood as the boys cannot imagine anything better than prison life and death. When all of them get asked about their dreams in the next twenty years, they equate the ages that that time would project to more suffering, the kind that they have witnessed. That element is an indication of the importance of the responsible fatherly figure in the house (Dillon, 2010). That is so because they always set the precepts for the development of their children by acting as the role models and inspiring their dreams. Even if a father is not well off, as in the cases of the African American brothers, they can encourage their children to strive for success and a better life. That is because they inspire the children to be responsibility. Moreover, the time spent with children can streamline their behavior and convince that supremacy is not gotten through violence. Mentored and inspired children always speak with confidence, the kind that the brothers spoke with. As such it is evident that responsibility is encouraged with great parental and sibling guidance, especially by the male gender in the family. The absence of men and the masculine/male role models in the hallway hangers neighborhood makes it very challenging to inspire the children to get engaged in any constructive activity. Sociological Theories in the Book Psychoanalytic Social Theory The theory explains that the conceptions of the human mind that are made through experiences are responsible for the shaping and manipulation of an individual's personality. Such conceptions may be the results of cultural and social conditioning, which implies that they are learned elements that are gathered through interaction with the environment. When a child gets subjected to an environment that deprives of the benefits of parental affection, love, and care, they develop hostility toward the society and their parents in particular. This element creates a basic anxiety that results in, mostly, moving away from people, which gives the labeling of neurotics. Such compulsive mannerism generates an intrapsychic conflict that may take the form of hatred, either to self (self-hatred) or to the society. It is the norm that in their hatred, such kids may resign to the societal enigmas and adopt aggression as an approach for fending for themselves. They also have the tendency of using hard drugs as a mechanism for elevating their feeling of dejection. However, the contrary happens in situations that a child is accorded the good parental care and love. Such children often heed to their parent's teachings and the teachings of the society. Hence, they are easy to psychologically manipulate to follow the set social precepts of to break bars. Unlike the other children who develop into intrapsychic conflict, such children exhibit self-belief and love toward the society. Moreover, they choose great personalities to emulate as role models. These are the kind of children who, in the American societies, would hold supreme the elements of the American dream. An application of the theory in Jay's Aint no Making it projects the two groups of children in the American societies (Appelrouth & Edles, 2008). The revelations that are made through the interviews with the hallway hangers band reveal that there are no significant parental figures in their families. That partly explains the reasons as to why they have no dreams and the ill-mannered characteristics. However, it is largely explained by the psychoanalytic social theory that explains that their resignation to terror, drugs and violence are projections that resulted from the poor upbringing that they were subjected to. When asked about his twenty coming years, Jinks thinks that the most appropriate thing that he would be doing at that time is getting high on hard drugs. Considering that these children had no dreams, it is possible to deduce that there was no adequate parental presence in their lives to guide them or for them to emulate. As such, they ended up with no parental love and care and projected the intrapsychic mannerisms. However, their counterparts who communicate using a respectful language compared to them, probably had parental guidance and love during their later years of development. That is why they have dreams and aspire to leave in better societies. They even think that the behavioral projection of the hallway hangers is stupid. Craig terms them as both lazy and stupid, and as such portrays them as incapable of achieving any substantial factor in their lives. The psychoanalytic social theory makes the contrast between the two groups easy to comprehend. It also makes it easy to associate the effects of the environment on the social behavior. The Labeling Theory The theory implies that the effects of social references can have a permanent psychological effect on an individual (Appelrouth & Edles, 2008). For instance, the constant calling of children as stupid would make them doubt their intellectual ability and drive them to the belief that they are incapable of exhibiting any level of intelligence. Negative labels always lead to the projection of negative characters. For instance, when a society has been labeled to be crime laden, criminals tend to take advantage to engage in the criminal acts. Such deviance may be primary, secondary or elevated to what is referred to as the deviant career. Primary deviance is temporary and does not conform to a social norm. Secondary deviance is elongated than the primary deviance but does not also conform to a social norm. However, deviant career implies the deviant behaviors that are adopted at tender ages and maintained by an individual to become a social norm. When applied to the hallway hangers, the theory highlights the labels that the community had been branded due to their long social history of poverty and crime. These are projections that get made from the analysis of their interviews with Jay, and their lack of desire to explore any available opportunities. Moreover, the teenagers labeled themselves as bad and violent and as such, desired to project the elements of their projections. The hallway hangers exhibited deviance during their teenage life and opted to stay out of school. Moreover, they committed their time to using drugs and engaging in violent activities. At that time, they were convinced that life projected in the future had no meaning as there were limited chances of surviving the present. However, when contacted later by Jay, they indicated regrets for poorly led lives when young. All of them had made the conception that given the opportunity, they would reverse all the factors that they did wrong. These are realizations that downed upon them when the real challenges of life caught up with them. They could no longer live in the fantasies of teenage life and were faced with the realities of caring for families and for themselves. Considering that at their tender ages, the Hallway Hangers preferred deviance that never stuck with them to adulthood, the theory of secondary social deviance is applicable to them. That is because they maintained deviance for long periods of time, but later abandoned the vices that made them the bad people in the society. Conclusion Social behavior is subject to several factors, all of which are conceived through the interaction with the environment. The conceptions that a child develops as he or she interacts with the society shape their psychological developments and influences the way they embrace societal norms. The analysis of Jay's book reveals that poor parenting backgrounds can influence the development of a child into deviance. However, children who are bred with great parental care and love project determination and the desire to emulate great figures both within the family as the society at large. The hallway hangers have been projected as the group of teenagers who were subjected to social enigmas that hampered their social development. They only change later in life after being subjected to parenting challenges. On the other hand, the African American brothers got projected as the children who had a positive upbringing that served to inspire them to achieve their dreams. References Appelrouth, S., & Edles, L. D. (2008). Classical and contemporary sociological theory: Text and readings. Los Angeles, Calif: Pine Forge Press. Dillon, M. (2010). Introduction to sociological theory: Theorists, concepts, and their applicability to the twenty-first century. Chichester, U.K: Wiley-Blackwell. Read More