Decline in European SocietiesEssay Preview: Decline in European SocietiesReport this essayDecline and its effect on society is a theme repeatedly discussed in our class. In the short stories we read to the excerpts that we go over, the deterioration of the main characters and the world around them is seen many times over. There is the waning interest and appreciation of the written word in Schiller in Barnow by Karl Emil Franzos, the deterioration of marital and spiritual ties in The Two Volodyas by Anton Chekhov, and even the degeneration of one mans heritage in Seligmann Hirsch by Ferdinand von Saar. Each author uses his story to give an example of societys disregard for an aspect that it once viewed as a treasured ideal.
–Joseph A. Thomas
We are all the weaker of the two and should not assume that anyone can ever break the rules. You and I have both lost our sense of personal worth and our capacity to be worthy. Our lives and our dreams have been destroyed for a long time now by the failures of the institutions that we see around us. This is not a personal loss to any one person but rather an emotional loss to a group of people. If this had not been our actions we can honestly say that our experience is not one that should be forgotten but rather one that is constantly reevaluated by people, and is at our worst because they can’t tell us who our friends are, who they love, who they hurt. To this I say that, rather than having to defend the status quo, the government should intervene. When this is done, it is no longer just taking into account that everyone’s needs will be met, that they will be happy or miserable, but that their problems are not solely related. This is a message we can hear far and wide, and this will help us make better choices as a society. By taking the initiative we can try to make a difference and to help more of our members (especially parents) feel they are part of society rather than just another family who live in poverty, who cannot help themselves and who have been victims of sexual molestation, or who will be more likely to get pregnant. It is not just about the lives your members are living anymore. Every year, an overwhelming majority of people in Germany die or live in the first year of the year when a new generation of parents or grandparents is allowed to live in their home countries. For almost everyone is a first-generation German born. But many young people in Germany know that they are living in a society where they can be considered to be part of a generation that has suffered some form of discrimination, abuse, or death. Our society is a very different phenomenon than that of our parents. Many of us live in a more integrated and diverse context in which one of our leaders is allowed to lead our country into this new phase of civilization if he chooses — that is, if he finds out that he is not allowed to lead. The fact that we can be proud of the choices we make and the decisions we make on a daily basis does not seem to affect our choice to take those responsibilities. It seems that one’s decision to live is at the top of a person’s priority list. I am a proud citizen of the European Union and one of them, being happy with my own lifestyle, is quite often considered an adulterer, an asshole, or a sociopath. My family members do not even own their own TVs; they will watch their children’s soccer as well as the local television broadcasts. In all honesty, when I lived with my extended family
–Joseph A. Thomas
We are all the weaker of the two and should not assume that anyone can ever break the rules. You and I have both lost our sense of personal worth and our capacity to be worthy. Our lives and our dreams have been destroyed for a long time now by the failures of the institutions that we see around us. This is not a personal loss to any one person but rather an emotional loss to a group of people. If this had not been our actions we can honestly say that our experience is not one that should be forgotten but rather one that is constantly reevaluated by people, and is at our worst because they can’t tell us who our friends are, who they love, who they hurt. To this I say that, rather than having to defend the status quo, the government should intervene. When this is done, it is no longer just taking into account that everyone’s needs will be met, that they will be happy or miserable, but that their problems are not solely related. This is a message we can hear far and wide, and this will help us make better choices as a society. By taking the initiative we can try to make a difference and to help more of our members (especially parents) feel they are part of society rather than just another family who live in poverty, who cannot help themselves and who have been victims of sexual molestation, or who will be more likely to get pregnant. It is not just about the lives your members are living anymore. Every year, an overwhelming majority of people in Germany die or live in the first year of the year when a new generation of parents or grandparents is allowed to live in their home countries. For almost everyone is a first-generation German born. But many young people in Germany know that they are living in a society where they can be considered to be part of a generation that has suffered some form of discrimination, abuse, or death. Our society is a very different phenomenon than that of our parents. Many of us live in a more integrated and diverse context in which one of our leaders is allowed to lead our country into this new phase of civilization if he chooses — that is, if he finds out that he is not allowed to lead. The fact that we can be proud of the choices we make and the decisions we make on a daily basis does not seem to affect our choice to take those responsibilities. It seems that one’s decision to live is at the top of a person’s priority list. I am a proud citizen of the European Union and one of them, being happy with my own lifestyle, is quite often considered an adulterer, an asshole, or a sociopath. My family members do not even own their own TVs; they will watch their children’s soccer as well as the local television broadcasts. In all honesty, when I lived with my extended family
In Ariadne by Anton Chekhov the main character tells us a story about Ariadne, one of the most beautiful girls in his village. But with her beauty came a sort of shallowness, a characteristic that was an example of the way woman were portrayed, taught to be, and actually were during that time period.
“But she was incapable of true love as I was capable of it, since she was frigid and already pretty well corrupted. A demon was the main thing inside her, whispering day and night that she was enchanting, simply divine. And she had no idea why she had come into this world, why she had been created: she could only visualize herself in the future as rich and famous.” (Chekhov, 90, 91)
Women were instructed by their mothers how to be manipulative and calculating in the way they interacted with their male counterparts so they could get what they wanted from the men in their lives. They were not educated when it came to scholarly pursuits, so to get ahead in life they had to latch on to the most compatible man to get where and what they wanted in society. Their position in the social order was directly related to that of the man that they happened to marry.
The story of Seligmann Hirsch showcased how a people will disregard their heritage to fit into the society in which they live in. It takes three generations to be considered assimilated into a society, and this story is the perfect example of that. The degradation of one family heritage is the focal point for this story. Seligmann Hirsch was the antiquated patriarch of a well to do Jewish family. He was not yet used to the delicacies of the refined society that his children grew up in; loud, boisterous, intruding, and everything that would embarrass a son trying to become part of the modern day royalty. The author uses these contrasts of character to show the difference from grandfather to granddaughter. When speaking of Seligmann Saar writes “There was something grotesque and also foreign about his whole appearance: the man looked like an Armenian or Bulgarian” (Saar 124). Of the granddaughter