Single-parent families can be defined as families where a parent lives with dependent children, either alone or in a larger household, without a spouse or partner. Single parent families have become a permanent and noticeable feature in many societies today. As the traditional structure of husband, wife, and children gives way to other forms of family life have you ever wonder why. Single-parent families are generally categorized by the sex of the custodial parent (mother-only or father-only families).

Today’s single mother does not necessarily fit the old stereotype of an unwed teen living on welfare. Unwed motherhood has lost much of its stigma. In addition, many women are better educated and better able to support themselves​—so marriage is no longer a financial prerequisite to motherhood. Mother-only families include widows, divorced and separated women, and never-married mothers. In the case of divorce, mothers are usually given custody. In the past, father-only families formed as a result of widowhood, desertion by the mother, or wives refusing custody. There has been a major increase in the number of single fathers. Single fathers are twice as common in white families when compared to black families

 

The increase in births to unwed mothers is the consequence of unplanned, accidental pregnancy, this includes teenage mothers, as well as adult women who delay marriage while pursuing educational and career opportunities, increasing the probability of pregnancy outside of marriage. Contributing factors to teen pregnancy are because of adult role models; peer pressure; poverty; and inadequate sex education, especially about contraception and family planning

Another contributing form of single parenting is women who choose to have or adopt and raise and raise a child or children alone. technology development allows women to have children a partner. people who choose this road single parent or a same sex partner, single women who are near the end of there child bearing years

 

 

 

 

The movie Snowpiercer show that earth is plunged into a new ice age, due to the measures used to slow global warming, rendering it inhospitable. They live on a train that continuously travelling around the earth, where the occupants live in different sectors. The train is set to portrays the different class set in society. The movie shows society, its social, political, and economic structures that we live by. Specifically, the problems in the class system, and how it is inherently unjust., how the different sections of train are set out, the power positions of the characters, and what these positions suggest or symbolize, as well as the cause and effect of the revolutionary events of the movie. The movie emphasized that each class are where they are for a reason, specifically with the quote, “so it is.” The lower is the shoe belonging on the foot and the upper being the hat that belongs on the head. The train is approximately sixty sections long from the very back the tail to the very front the engine section

 

Societies are classified into three broad categories:

Lower class: It refers to people who are uneducated, either unemployed, or with low levels of income. Those below the poverty line struggle even for basic necessities like food and shelter.

Middle class: The majority of the population known as the white-collar workers constitute the middle class. They lie between the rich and the poor. This class generally constitutes the majority of a country’s population. They have dignified jobs and a standard, honorable lifestyle.

Upper class: The wealthy or high-income groups and individuals are known as the upper class of society. Prestige, status, and sometimes even power, all factors coincide with this stratum.

 

The class difference is visibly shown where the tail people look like homeless people, in tattered clothing and covered in dirt. The tail section is essentially a slum, they never having any real food, just protein blocks that are made from bugs, no access to sanitation or medication. This section is the

lower classes of the world.  At one point a they are referred to as being freeloaders showing that who are better off look down on those who cannot get by in the world. the tail where they’re physically beaten up or have a body part frozen and hammered off.  the train are heavily guarded, showing how they don’t wish for those at the bottom to make any social progression.

 

The prison section is further up the train, showing how a criminal from the upper classes have more value than someone living in a tail. The guards’ living area is further up, which has windows, showing the benefits of being a little higher up in society. The guards, as well as others who has a job working for the train, can be considered as part of a working class, another part of the social order in society. The man producing the food for the lower class of people, where he was taken from show that because he performs a service, society views him a little higher. The empty cars show the division in the classes, and how there is a great distance between the rich and the poor.

The next sections of the train hold are the water supply, food supply for the upper classes, an orchard/garden, an aquarium, and a slaughterhouse which show all the thing the upper class possess. the rich can afford to eat better, while the poor are left with food that always leave them hungry or under nourished. There children have the opportunity to be educated. while those at the back starve, those at the front party and do drugs. All these are a part of the upper-class life styles. This shows the continuous motion of present-day society, and how what goes on within it will not cease to exist until the very structure is destroyed. it is obvious how the setting of the movie symbolizes the class structures within society, and how it indicates things about our world

 

There are times when people look down on those from a lower social class for no other reason than their socioeconomic position. This awareness or acknowledgement of social and economic status is referred to as class consciousness, which includes a person’s beliefs and understandings of their own social class in a capitalist society. the reasons that a person may  mistreat someone of a lower class is because they believe that their own class makes them superior to those below them, who they may perceive as simply not working hard enough. You see this happening in the school scene where the children talk about the tail people being freeloaders. You also see it Mason tell them that they are the foot and they should not try to be anything else, she is telling them they belong in the lower level and that they should stay there and not try to level up. You also see it when Wilfred tell Curtis everyone has their preordained position, and everyone is in their place except him. He is tell him everyone plays a part in the train (society) and there are exactly where they should be.

False consciousness is a term that Marxist economists and philosophers use to describe a particular state of mind that prevents a person from recognizing the injustice of their current situation. According to Marxists, this state of mind prevents individuals from combining their efforts and taking action to have a better life than they currently have. This come about with the train babies (children born on the train) they don’t know anything other than what they see on the train, whether they are born in the tail the lower class or the front the upper classes all they know is what is currently happening in the train they are all grow up with the knowledge that they will live out there life on the train. The guard that keep the tail in check , they fail to realize that they are not in that much better situation that the tail person yes they have access to the food water etc., but they are also stuck in the back of the train. They should join with the tail people to take over the train instead of help the front people from the train oppress the tail people which is also oppressing them.

 

They are 2 types of proletariat people in the movies, the guard and the people from the tail that the upper class need for specific reason so they move them up from the tail section. For the people who come from the tail section to work the bourgeoisie keep then under control with fear of being sent back to the tail section. Since they are work for them they have better condition than the people still in the tail section. They know what it like to be there so they do whatever it take to make sure they stay where they are.  As for the guard they give them this false power, they have them believing that they are in control but in actuality they are not. They don’t even have bullets for the gun they use. When the revolts take place the gun with bullets had to be brought all the way from the front in the eggs.

The polar bear at the end indicates that life exists on earth, and also means that there might be resources (food & water) which can sustain human life.  It prove what Namgoong Minsoo was tell Curtis. Yona and Tim are both train babies and the only one who survives they have never been outside the train,  never seen or interacted with other species. They will become the new Adam and Eve for the next wave of humans.

 

 

This train is a complete ecosystem which must respect the balance. Air, water, food, people. Everything must be regulated. For this, it was sometimes necessary use more radical solutions.

The balance can only be achieved by two ways: Either by natural selection or political manipulation. Over the course of its 18 year, the train has had three “revolutions” instigated by Wilford and Gilliam. They understood that they needed to “maintain a balance between anxiety and fear, chaos and horror, for life goes on.” Class warfare was the ingenious method of maintaining the population. The people in the front of the train can never grow too comfortable, for fear the back might rise up and take their place.  The tail section at the back are given just enough hope in a future regime-change that they don’t fall into complete despair. By having a controlled “revolution” every five years or so, the political manipulators ( Wilford and Gilliam) could let the Front and Back kill off just enough people to maintain the balance. In essence, Wilford and Gilliam accept the validity of Darwinian social determinism, but believe it can be controlled and maintained more “humanely” by implementing a political solution

Manifest function is show in the movie when Wilford and Gilliam have a controlled “revolution” every five years or so could let the Front and Back kill off just enough people to maintain the balance.  It turns into latent function with  Curtis they did not expect Curtis to get so far up the train and because of that Gilliam and all the tail section people are killed expect for 18 people to celebrate the 18 year on the train. Dysfunction happens when the train is blown up and only Yona and Tim are both train babies and the only one who survives. Also them seeing the bear which show that you can survive off the train.

 Reference: 

Patil, Rujuta. “Social Stratification: Types, Characteristics, and Examples.” OpinionFront, OpinionFront, 2018, opinionfront.com/social-stratification-types-characteristics-examples. Accessed 3 May 2019.

 

‌ “Class Consciousness: Definition & Concept | Study.Com.” Study.Com, 2019, study.com/academy/lesson/class-consciousness-definition-lesson-quiz.html. Accessed 3 May 2019.

‌“False Consciousness in Sociology: Definition & Examples – Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.Com.” Study.Com, 2019, study.com/academy/lesson/false-consciousness-in-sociology-definition-examples-quiz.html. Accessed 3 May 2019.

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We l look around Belize and we see many different cultures sounding us. One race that has become very dominant are the Chinese. In 1865, 480 Chinese immigrants were brought to British Honduras as indentured laborers. They went to work in the timber camps, by 1869, only 211 remained accounted for; 108 had died, while another 155 had sought refuge with the native peoples at Chan Santa Cruz. Many of the deaths were due to suicide in response to horrifying working conditions and the cruel and unjust treatment by the estate manager. Chinese have been migrating constantly, and the second largest batch came just before the outbreak of World War II, when they traveled to the United States from where they gradually trickled southward by land to Mexico and Central America. Today approximately 2% of Belize’s population identifies themselves as Chinese. The Chinese population continues to play an important role in Belizean society. Although the chinses population of Belize consider themselves full members of Belize society, they maintain a strong pride and appreciation for their unique culture and history.  

Language

Chinese speak their own dialects depending on which region in China they come from. In Belize, there are at least four different dialects spoken. It is found that some Chinese have Spanish names like Quinto; names like this were adopted during their time spent in Mexico or Guatemala. A common misconception is that the names of Chinese shops are family names, when rather they are slogans that translate into hopeful business ventures. For example, Hop Sing means: “Let’s get together and make a success of it”.

Food

Chinese who live along the road and in the countryside where the land is arable grow crops like rice, corn, soybean, fruits and ornamental plants. Having developed unique styles of cooking, the daily activity that gives the Chinese most joy is eating. Those who restrain themselves from eating certain foods do so because of religion which restricts some from eating pork, beef, or no meat at all. Fresh vegetables, including Chinese pumpkin, cabbage, bitter lemon and turnip are popular. Potato, cassava, and beans are not eaten, while noodles are much consumed

Traditions

The most important festival for the Chinese is the Lunar New Year, which falls on the first day of the first lunar month – usually between late January and late February. Lion dances, accompanied by cymbals, drums, gongs, and firecrackers are a common sight during these festivities. Every year in font of different chines stored you can see the lion dance parade. Then they have a banquet this year it was princesses where 800 guesses attended both Chinese and Belizean. Each year on the chinses calendar is represented by an animal and this year is the year of the pig.

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Religion

 majority of Chinese, religion is a mixture of all the various Chinese philosophies. The older generation, especially the women, continue to practice an abbreviated form of ancestor worship, Taoism and Buddhism, while most of their children born in Belize have adopted Catholicism consequent upon their Catholic education. Other are either atheists or don’t have a religion.

Reference

Belize Ethnic Groups | East Asian. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.belmopanonline.com/belize-east-asian-culture

Chinese in Belize | History of Chinese Migration to Belize. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.belizehub.com/chinese-in-belize/

Belize – The Chinese Phenomenon. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.breakingbelizenews.com/2017/06/06/belize-chinese-phenomenon/

The boy in the striped pajamas is a movie set during world war II where Bruno an eight old boy who is the son of the commandant at a German Concentration camp, who forms a forbidden friendship with  a Jewish boy name Shmuel on the other side of the fence.

The sociological perspective that is present throughout the movie is Conflict theory. Conflict theory is states that society is in a perpetual conflict because of competition for limited resources. It holds that social order is maintained by domination and power, rather than consensus and conformity. According to conflict theory, those with wealth and power try to hold on to it by any means possible, chiefly by suppressing the poor and powerless.

From the begging of the movie you notice the power play. Where Bruno’s family (upper class) is busy preparing for the party to celebrate his father promotion at the same time Nazi soldiers (bourgeois) are taking Jewish family (lower class) out of their home forcing them in the back of a truck to take them to the Concentration camp.

The first scene where oppression is present is where Shmuel is cleaning the glass in the house and Bruno give him food when Kotler sees he shout at Shmuel and treated to punish him. Terrified of punishment, Shmuel explains to Kotler that he and Bruno are friends and that he gave him the food. Bruno who is also scared of Kotler denies giving  Shmuel the food or even knowing him, because of this Shmuel is punished as you see later in the movie with his swollen eye. 

Another part of the movie where oppression happens is where the Jews men along with Bruno and Shmuel are forces into the gas chambers by the Nazi soldiers, they are then told to take off their clothing after you see a Nazi soldiers pouring Zyklon B pellets into the chambers killing everyone inside.

Two theories of prejudice that was displayed in the movie are Scapegoat and convergence.

Scapegoat theory refers to the tendency to blame someone else for one’s problems, a process that often results in feelings of prejudice toward the person or group that one is blaming.

When Kotler is being question by Ralf Bruno’s father as to why he did not report that his father did not support their belief (had disagreement with the government) with action there toward  Jews, unfortunately at the same time Pavel spills the wine and Kotler shout the word … Jew and the beat Pavel to death. Depending on how you look at it, there are two ways I saw Kotler using Pavel as a scapegoat. One he beat on Pavel as a distraction so that Ralf would stop questioning him about his father because it was obvious that he did not want to answer the question. 2 to show Ralf that even thought his father did not agree with what they are doing he full support them, so he beat up Pavel to show his locality to the cause.

Convergence theory states that crowd behavior is a composite of the individuals who join, and that people join a certain crowd because they want to behave in a certain way.

Convergence is show with Gretel who as the movie goes on you see her just following and believing whatever she sees and is taught. You see this in all the poster she has in her room, by here telling her brother that the Jews belong in the camp because they are the reason they lost the war, that they are vermin and evil people.

Gretel learn prejudice in the movie mainly from her teach Herr who teach her  Nazi ideologies, the other person is her father who actually hire Herr but also encourage the teaching telling her mother that it what children her age should be learning. She learns by witnessing the inhumane way Kotler spoke to Pavel when Bruno asked if he could get a tire to build a swing. After see and learning all theses she went a step farther and started to tech herself with Hitler poster that she put all over her bedroom wall and in keeping up with the war with newspapers. 

Bruno did not readily learn prejudice as his older sister because he gets conflicted and don’t know what to believe the teach form his father, teach and sister or what his new friend Shmuel tell him about the way the solder treat him and what happen in the camp. You can see the conflict when his sister is reading for Herr about all the wrong Jews have done he asks Herr if Jews really cause all the problems, if there is any good Jews he and Herr respond by telling him that if he found any good Jews that he would be the best explorer ever. Bruno then think back to Shmuel and the friendship they have form. Looking at when Shmuel tell him that he does not like solders because they treat them bad he defends solders and say that not all are bad but he asked his sister if his dad is a good solder. Children tend to only see the good in the world so he is conflict when he is being told two different story about the people in his life and for that reason I believe he did not readily learn prejudice like his sister.

            When watching the movie there are times Bruno’s father presented a racism mind. The first scene that comes to mind is when Bruno is asking him about the farmers (Jews in the death camp) he tells him they are not really people. When his wife confront him about the camp being a death camp and not labor camp he explains to her that the only way to make the world a better place  and win the war  could not be achieve without work such as this  to basically kill all Jews.

Genocide -It is the mass extermination of a whole group of people, an attempt to wipe them out of existence.

In the movie I can think about two very clear times that the Nazi accomplished genocide in the movie. The first one is brought up by Bruno who innocently asked about the odor he smells but no one pays him any attention, later on Bruno’s mom Sara smell one thing bad and is searching for it and Kotler make the comment about them smelling worst burning than they do alive. It’s then Sara realize that the camp is a death camp and not a labor camp. The other time is when Bruno, Shmuel and the Jewish men where force in the gas chambers and killed.

All the adults compartmentalize one point or the other in the movie, Sara is ok with the Jews being in a labor camp put can’t deal with the fact that it’s a death camp. A decent person would not be ok with forcing other people into a working camp. Ralf compartmentalize his action by stating he is a solder and the action he is doing is to make the world a better place.

Sara is unable to compartmentalize anymore because she is face with Jews in her everyday life. First we see her when she thanks Pavel for bandaging Bruno’s knee, or when she sees her daughter starting to change. The part where she really can’t do it anymore is when she finds out that the camp is not labor camp but in its actuality a death camp.   

This movie has open my mind more as to how we need to take responsibility for what our children learn. it shows so our kid don’t see color or race, they see the world for the beauty it has until us as adults put thing in their heads to make them see color and race. it also remind me that if i see a wrong and don’t stand up and say something about it or do something about it i am just as bad as the person doing the bad thing

Reference:

Kenton, Will. “Conflict Theory.” Investopedia, Investopedia, 12 Mar. 2019, http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/conflict-theory.asp.

“5 Important Theories of Prejudice.” Psychology Discussion – Discuss Anything About Psychology, 4 Mar. 2016, http://www.psychologydiscussion.net/social-psychology-2/prejudice/5-important-theories-of-prejudice/1370.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton