I'm just kidding, but in all seriousness, today we're going to be learning about socialization. Socialization is the act of social contact, the way individuals learn to think and act a certain way, that is accepted in their culture or region.
Social interaction is another major part of what shapes us as human beings. Along with our human nature, our social group and culture helps form friendships and influences morals and beliefs. There have been studies done on twins who have been separated at birth. In this study they compare their personality, morals and values among other things. Here's a video that explains these twin studies much better than I ever could:
As he explains, identical twins share not only physical traits, but many other things such as humor, personality and IQ levels, regardless of where they grew up, with each other or apart.
On the other hand, their morals and values tend to change based on where and how they were raised, and who has influenced them. It proves that even with our genetics and human nature, we need some amount of socialization in order to develop to our full potential.
People who lack social interaction at a young age are called isolates. This means they've been deprived of physical, social or emotional contact. This can effect their growth mentally, physically, emotionally, psychologically, and even socially.
Now, I bet you're thinking, well how does this relate to Life of Pi in ANY way? Well, as you can probably tell, Socialization, Human Nature and Nurture are the basis of the way we act and how we deal with problems in our lives. As it turns out, in Life of Pi, Pi Patel goes through a IMMENSE amount of change and life and death decisions which he has to deal with one of two ways, the way he was taught during his life(the way he was NURTURED) or the way our genetic make up wants us to do things, the way NATURE intended.
One of the many problems Pi comes face to face with is finding clean water and food. It is the simplest form of human nature we all face, when we're hungry or thirsty, we go off in search of water and food. The difference between us and savages or animals, is that we prefer clean water and cooked food. Most of us, apart from sushi have never eaten raw meat, and would never imagine wanting to. For Pi, he was brought up in a home filled with vegetarians. Because of this, it is even more horrific at the beginning of the book for him to even think about eating raw meat, not to mention having to kill the animal in order to eat it.
As the book progresses, you can tell that Pi is slowly letting his human nature over power his nurturing and socialization. After he catches and kills the first flying fish, his means to find, kill and eat food become more and more barbaric. As we progress through the book, he goes from hitting the head of the fish under a blanket to kill them, to total decapitation. He also is very vicious with his first turtle, breaking its neck and sawing through all the cartilage, muscle and bone in order to kill it and eat it. He also attempts to eat tiger feces, which in our society and pretty much any society, wouldn't be acceptable.On the other hand, he is also a very good example of how nurture can be a very vital tool. Throughout his time on the raft and life boat, Pi continues to be very faithful of all three religions he chose to follow. He makes time every day to pray and pay his respects to his god. This, in turn, also helps keeps his mind busy, and keep his hopes and spirits up. It also proves that we're not just preprogrammed machines that eat sleep and drink. We're capable of looking at the bigger picture, and coming to terms with tragic events.
In our society, as an adult, it is unacceptable to only follow the influences of our human nature. As we grow up we have to learn how to not only how to dress, act and function in society, but when we have kids of our own we need to be able to provide and nurture another human being. If you think about it, our parents have one of the most difficult jobs, they have to provide and help build the foundation for the next generation. Not only that, but they have to ensure that we're capable of looking after ourselves, so we can in turn have kids of our own.
In that case, it's no wonder that some people may mess up once and a while, doing the most important job there is. Here's a video of a father who took to great extremes disciplining his daughter for posting rude comments about her parents on Facebook. You be the judge on whether or not these consequences were called for or not.
Was this the right type of nurture to help shape and influence the next generation, or was it too extreme to have a positive impact on her?
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