“No. Travis, you stay
right here. And you make him understand what you doing, Walter Lee. You teach
him good. Like Willy Harris taught you. You show where our five generations
done come to” (Hansberry 147).
Family values transcend through each generation. Mama’s five generations believed in fighting for one’s family, trying to stay as a homogenous family unit. When Walter tries to sell the house to Mr. Lindner, he is metaphorically exchanging all the morals he has been taught for money. In effect, he will be empty inside, consumed by the societal ideal to achieve a higher socioeconomic status in life. However, Mama allows Travis to stay and “grin innocently” (Hansberry 147). Although Walter has already lost his innocence, he cannot take himself to destroy Travis’s innocence; he does not want Travis to see him trade his morals for money and see his black culture be subservient to the white race. As Travis looks up to Walter for guidance, Walter does not want him to feel trapped in a society filled with racial divisions. Instead, Walter’s decision acts as a model for Travis to stand up for his beliefs, fighting injustice and not giving in.
Loss of generational values is seen even in our 11 AP class. Our parents all went to school without advanced smartphones to text in class, snapchat, tweet, etc. Talking face-to-face and hanging out with friends is now being replaced with hours spent trying to take the perfect selfie or video to upload on one’s snap story. Despite regulations put in place to limit cellphone use, our generation has the audacity to continue using our phones constantly in class, having our eyes glued to our tiny screens. In a way, we have all adopted FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). This fear of regret—loss of social interaction—permeates through our minds; we adopt this obsession to know exactly what is going on in society at every moment. One ring from our phones makes everyone in class wonder if they received a notification, turning our attention to our phones. Now I am not saying that I am the perfect person. I waste copious amounts of time just refreshing Facebook to see if anyone posted something new. Snapchat almost trapped me into a cycle of destruction this summer: trying to maintain Snapchat streaks.
Family values transcend through each generation. Mama’s five generations believed in fighting for one’s family, trying to stay as a homogenous family unit. When Walter tries to sell the house to Mr. Lindner, he is metaphorically exchanging all the morals he has been taught for money. In effect, he will be empty inside, consumed by the societal ideal to achieve a higher socioeconomic status in life. However, Mama allows Travis to stay and “grin innocently” (Hansberry 147). Although Walter has already lost his innocence, he cannot take himself to destroy Travis’s innocence; he does not want Travis to see him trade his morals for money and see his black culture be subservient to the white race. As Travis looks up to Walter for guidance, Walter does not want him to feel trapped in a society filled with racial divisions. Instead, Walter’s decision acts as a model for Travis to stand up for his beliefs, fighting injustice and not giving in.
Loss of generational values is seen even in our 11 AP class. Our parents all went to school without advanced smartphones to text in class, snapchat, tweet, etc. Talking face-to-face and hanging out with friends is now being replaced with hours spent trying to take the perfect selfie or video to upload on one’s snap story. Despite regulations put in place to limit cellphone use, our generation has the audacity to continue using our phones constantly in class, having our eyes glued to our tiny screens. In a way, we have all adopted FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). This fear of regret—loss of social interaction—permeates through our minds; we adopt this obsession to know exactly what is going on in society at every moment. One ring from our phones makes everyone in class wonder if they received a notification, turning our attention to our phones. Now I am not saying that I am the perfect person. I waste copious amounts of time just refreshing Facebook to see if anyone posted something new. Snapchat almost trapped me into a cycle of destruction this summer: trying to maintain Snapchat streaks.
 |
| This is me trying to keep my Snapchat streaks |
However, we must return
to our past generation’s values; we must take the conscientious effort to
ignore our phones when they get a new notification; we must limit our social
media usage; we must concentrate what is in front of us; we must respect
others. Travis reminds Walter of the 5 generations of family values just as Val
should remind us of our past generation’s values. Is it worth it to check our
phone or should we focus on our education? (however, I am left to wonder how students from last year got so many photos of Val for their memes)
I liked how you analyzed the quote in the beginning of the post with very little summary. I also appreciate how you connected the analysis to how people are attached to their phones. While I don't have a Facebook or Twitter account myself, I do get "glued" to my phone while playing video games. Also, are you referring to Ms. Valentino when you wrote "Val"?
ReplyDeleteNice post Richard! I really liked how you added "FOMO" Lopez really taught us well in Spanish 4 last year. I also really liked your post because you related something from the book to something all around us; the uncontrollable use of our phones. I also really liked you analysis on how Walter would trade his morals for money, I think you had a good in depth analysis on that. Nice post:)
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the connection you made with the book to your blog post. I think lots of us fear missing out on things in general and our phones help us feel more included, so when we don't have our phone we feel left out. Great post!
ReplyDeleteGreat post Richard! I liked how you connected your post to how much people are attached to their phones. I know that I probably spend more time than considered healthy on my phone.
ReplyDeletelove it for sure!
ReplyDeletekta