Critical Analysis of My Neighbors Son

610 Words3 Pages
Morals and beliefs have seemed to become more corrupt over the past decade. Murder and crime rates have skyrocketed and many are unsure of the reason for this. In the essay “My Neighbor’s Son,” the author, Pearl Buck, explains that if individuals are allotted more privileges later in life, they are more likely to abuse them because of the lack of responsibilities in youth and adolescence. In this essay, Pearl Buck uses insightful concepts, effective metaphors as well as real life scenarios that are easily relatable to portray his message of why there has been such an increase in the amoral actions of society’s youth and young adults. Respect is a quality that one does not simply acquire, but takes long periods of time to build up. The author constantly relates one’s respect with their duties throughout this essay. A very insightful view on the topic of respect and how it is built is when Buck states, “responsibility breeds in respect, and when our young people assume responsibility, they deserve our respect” (pg 398). As respect is not given but earned, this is one of the most logical ways of earning it. With this respect comes a stronger conscience as well as greater morals. Diving deep into ideas on how to earn the idea of respect really emphasized the solution to the whole problem association with young adults and the increase in problems with them. Metaphors can be a great way to simplify a complicated subject to enable a wider variety of audiences to understand it more thoroughly, which essentially leads to greater enjoyment of the reading. A great example of using a metaphor to allow the reader to understand better is when the author states “It is an island apart, striving to maintain itself in a sea of change.” (pg 391). This is referring to how the household is not connected with the outer world and is therefore isolated from any interactions. Thus not
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