People Like Us By David Brooks Analysis

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What to Say about the Family… In Indian culture, as children we are brought up to believe that family is the most important privilege people have, and because of this, if one were to go to India he would sometimes find two-three generations of people living in one house. There’s even people who aren’t even blood-related to the family, but they’re treated with the same reverence and care as the immediate family. And because everyone has a say in the house, the people in the house become our tribe: they influence the younger generations, they make it so that values are upheld, and they provide a sense of security from outside strangers. But thinking about it in a more western light, this idea of the influential tribe could also hold us members back from any outside knowledge, experiences, or desires (in terms…show more content…
And this is what author David Brooks talks about in his sociological study, People like Us; because everyone has a say in the house, older moral and religious values are upheld and there is no room for individual progression. Instead, those who grow up in a multi-generational/ multi-family households, are (in a way) prone to thinking the same way as their peers, and then they impose the same values on their kin, and it goes on and on for who knows how long. There are many instances where having a large influential family has stopped people from pursuing what they want, like author Jeannette Walls’ family in her memoir The Glass Castle. With Walls’ parents and their weird philosophies that dismisses practical thinking, they make it so that their children will live the same way. And to the author, she feels that if she didn’t leave, she would not be able to live to what she feels is right. At the same time there are instances where the family has stopped others from making bad decisions, Americans see this all the time on the television show

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