Bichapulaq
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Religious theme
A belief is an assumed truth.
An externally generated belief: The alternative to finding things out for yourself is to take on board things that others have found out. People who generally prefer to accept beliefs from others have a greater need for a sense of control.
Commitment: a public or private decision to act. If we make a commitment, we often feel bound to follow through on it, for fear of social rejection or simply due to the threat of cognitive dissonance.
Roles: expectations of behaviors
Religious is an externally generated belief which plays an important part in this book. The Creedish church pretty much takes over the control of their people, their names, marriage, property, life, and even controlling their death. There was a commitment for the Creedish since they were baptized. Their roles were to follow the rules in Church, and devote themselves to their Lord. They have to send themselves to their Lord in Heaven when the church called for Deliverance.
Mass Media
Informational social influence: When we do not know how to behave, we copy other people. They thus act as information sources for how to behave as we assume they know what they are doing. Also because we care a great deal about what others think about us, this provides a safe course of action–at the very least, they cannot criticize us for our actions.
Newspaper, televisions, radios and even rumors connect people with information from different places. In the story, Tender was told by the caseworker and the FBI that his religion was called for the Deliverance ten years ago. Almost all of the Creedish committed in the mass suicide, including those out of the district, he was one of the few survivors according to their record. Mass media create informational social influence when the people read the news about the mass suicide of the Deliverance. They followed the behavior so that they would not criticize by the others. Mass media also create pressure when Tender knows that he is one of the few survivors, he went through a process of whether to live or to die.
Language
Language expectancy theory: In any situation we will have expectations about what language will and will not be used. When language outside this region is used, we will be surprised and possibly shocked.
Language creates conflict. Tender describe the “released” stamped of the caseworker was from a hospital. In the medical terms, “released” means the patient was recovered and set free. In contrast, “released” for the caseworker means the client was dead. I remember I read a book, The Yellow Raft in Blue Water; the author was an American teacher who joined an education program and teaches in China. In the story, he describes one of the Chinese politics who had a son with another woman, not his own wife, a “bastard”. However, the word “bastard” shocked the Chinese out of their expectation.
In Chinese culture, women have lower social level than men do. In that case, people will only judge whether or not the son was from that guy, it does not create much difference if the woman is not the wife. This idea also applies on stereotyping.
Stereotypes
Stereotypes: overview of a group of people which we defined set of positive or negative characteristics to this group.
“Big woman. Long blond hair in a braid. A real Brunhild”, (p.248) a command about Brunhild by the caseworker. Stereotypes appear in every society, even within the same race. For example, Chinese, other Chinese in different county would categorize Hong Kong people who speak loud and brand-lovers. Stereotyping also applies on sex. In the story, Fertility judge Tender by his outlook and categorized him Homosexual when she first met him.
Gender
Social-Role theory: This is the principle that men and women behave differently in social situations and take different roles, due to the expectations that society puts upon them (including gender stereotyping). This includes women taking positions of lower power, meeting glass ceilings, having home-making roles, etc.
It was funny when Tender was doing to lobster for the family he worked for. He describes a female lobster “soft and feathery” and a male lobster “hard and
rough”. This is how people see the differences in the social-role between the two genders in the real world: Men and women are socially unequal. Men are strong and tough; women are weak and dependent. However, I think gender discrimination exist in both sex. For example, it is a tradition in our society for women to marry successful men and not work. Yet, it is definitely
seen as strange when a man marries a successful woman and does not work.
Love and attraction
Love: a massive motivator and can lead people to perform all kinds of self-sacrificial acts.
Erous: Passionate and physical. Looks are important.
Ludus: love as a non-serious game. Harm is not intended but often happens.
Conformation bias: When we have made a decision or build a hypothesis, we will actively seek things which will confirm our decision or hypothesis. We will also avoid things which will disconfirm this. The alternative is to face the dissonance of being wrong.
Erous: Tender was attracted by Fertility, her outlook. He dressed well to look good on a date like all other people did. He was trying many combinations of the outfits. After he found the suitable combination, he asked the caseworker if he looks good. This reflects a conformation bias. He described the changes of his feeling when he was going to the date: “Faith, Joy, and Tranquillity” (p.218) and “hatred, anger, fear, and resignation” (p.218) when he didnt see Fertility. Ludus: His pin-point on how people play tricks about relationships, which I think is pretty accurate. “so I have a plan, a terrible plan, to make her hate me and at the same time fall in love with me.” (p.225) And the