Throughout the movie, Devil’s Playground, we are introduced to some of the lifestyles and guidelines that are instilled in the Amish community. Amish is a religion based off of the Christian church, however, the Amish believe that at a certain age you are allowed to experiences non-Amish traditions and then must make the choice to be baptized and choose the Amish lifestyle. Within this community there is a period of time each Amish sixteen year old has the opportunity to experience the outside world, known as Rumspringa or “running around”. This period of time is where a fair amount of misbehavior, drugs, partying, dressing in English clothes, driving cards, etc. takes place. However, this behavior is neither overlooked nor encouraged and is allowed to help the person choose their lifestyle.
Throughout this film we are introduced to five main characters, Faron, Gerald, Velda, Joann, and Emma. Each Character has their own experiences with the Amish lifestyle yet they all share many common factors. Gerald was one of the male characters who was living in his own trailer outside of the Amish population. He wore English clothing and drove a care. Often he was where others Amish populated due to his amount of privacy from the Amish community. During the time in which the movie was made Gerald did not see himself going back to Amish community, he found himself enjoying the privacy and partying lifestyle. Joann, a female character through the film embraced her running around
Rumspringa is a ceremony where the Amish youth turn 16 and are finally able to enjoy, the term refers to a limbo period in every Amish life when they are entering adulthood. During Rumspringa, they are encouraged to enjoy whatever pleasures they like. The purpose of this period is to give Amish youth the opportunity to see and experience the world beyond their own culture. Returning to their community and way of life after they experience the rest of the world is entirely their choice. Those who return are then baptized and become committed members of the Amish church and community, marking the end of Rumspringa.
The Amish are people who believe in Christ but have strict rules in their style of living, which is quite different from the modern society today. They live in a city in Philadelphia called Lancaster County, it is a very country style due to the acres of land each house has, the barn houses, and the animals. The uniqueness of their lifestyle to me is how they live in the world where technology is practically taking over every aspect, but they continue to stick to their beliefs and not change anything. To me it’s difficult to comprehend due to the fact that you can’t live like that in a majority of the cities today since technology is widely known. This is part of the reason why they live in their city far away in the middle of Philadelphia and have kept all their traditional ways. Part of the Amish belief is their separation from electricity since electricity is part of the “outside” world. They are not able to watch tv, have any public utility line running to their houses, or operate automobiles. It just blew my mind sitting there listening to how they live and how they follow all these guidelines in their life. For me it was different, but it intrigued me for some odd reason, just the fact that they have family time with no interruption, and dinner time with no distractions. Those two aspects alone bring families much closer and to me all the families in the world have become detached from true family time. Seeing their lifestyle and hearing all the guidelines they follow make me think of life without technology and how it would change our
I have been reading Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs and am on page 294. The characters in my book have traveled to Devil’s Acre. In this city murder is the only good thing that happens. People who live in Devil’s Acre are runaway peculiars looking for a way around the law. They are searching for their friends that have been taken by the hollows and are being lead by a new character, Sharon. I have stumbled upon a flash drive that was owned by the children and decided to share it with you.
This was sincerely the biggest eye opening independent film that I have ever seen. I know absolutely nothing about the Amish faith or people as I have never been exposed to them. Their strict way of life is backed by a very close knit family and strong religious beliefs. When teenagers in the Amish community turn sixteen they are free to explore the “English” world and they are exposed to everyday American life. Followers of the Amish religion believe that being exposed to the outside world is like being exposed to the Devil’s playground, hence the name of the film.
Norms are established standards of behavior maintained by a society. A set of rules, which can either be formal or informal. One common norm in the Amish society is dropping out of school after the age of 13, which relates to their belief of education leading to excessive pride. In American culture the legal drop-out age for school is no less than 16 years, and yet it’s not common and most pursue an education in college. Another common norm in Amish culture is that nice clothes and jewelry are prohibited because it is believed that they lead to vanity. On the contrary fashion and self-appearance are a common norm, imitating trendy fashion choices by celebrities is frequent. Also, the denial of rights to women is a norm. Women are considered to be the weaker vessel compared to men. It is the complete opposite in the American culture because women have the right to vote and for the most part women are about as equal as men. One last norm is that the Amish isolate themselves from the rest of the world. Moreover, social media is a huge norm in American culture. Sanctions are a dominant part of the Amish culture. Sanctions are penalties or rewards for conduct concerning a social norm. Most of the their important sanctions tie to their religion. For example, if they follow the rules they will be rewarded with going to Heaven. Furthermore if they don’t follow the rules then they will simply go to Hell. Another common one is that if one joins the Church,gets baptized and decides to leave again, then they will be shunned and their families will cut communication to them. The first two sanctions are similar to many of the religions that exist in American culture. For example, passage way will be opened to Heaven for those who have done good deeds and followed the rules, and the opposite for those with
Is there truly that big of a difference between the Amish and the rest of the world? Amish society is mostly defined by the word Gelassenheit. Gelassenheit is a master cultural disposition, deeply bred into the Amish soul, that governs perceptions, emotions, behavior, and architecture. (Riddle 29) The Amish have their core values that they follow in their everyday lives but does the rest of the world not have strict guidelines that they follow in organizations and in the workplace. I know that when I worked at the fire station over the summer that I had to follow the core values that they use. The Amish base their lives off their four main values of obedience, simplicity, submission, and humility. (Riddle 31) Over the summer I had to be obedient to my bosses, submit myself to the rules and regulations of the law, and had to show humility to struggling patients. I had to practice three of the Amish’s values for a job and did not realize it until I started this assignment. This paper will show the parallels between what I have read and the experiences that I had during my time at the fire department.
How would you feel if you were excluded from the modern world, constantly tempted by the freedom the world offers, having to make the choice between freedom or family? In the novel Growing up Amish, the author and main character, Ira Wagler, struggles to fit in with the Amish lifestyle. This struggle causes Ira to try to leave his family in order to get a taste of the outside English world. Although he tries to leave home multiple times, the thoughts of his home and family drags him back. Finally, Ira allows himself to follow his heart, and the freedom of the English world grabs hold of him for good. In Growing up Amish, Ira demonstrated the importance of following your heart, being strong, and never taking anything for granted.
At the age of 16-years-old, Doris had the ambition to leave behind the community during her time experiencing the “English” modern world because she felt there was more to life, “The reason I left the Amish was I knew that there was more to my life than the ways I was being given. I had emptiness inside of me. I felt as if I had no one to talk to or ask questions about myself or my religion, so in other words, I was running.” During Doris Rumspringa, Doris was not devoted to partying, but friends would be, “You can start partying when you turn sixteen and there is no age limit as to when you can come back or join the church. I remember there was a guy who came back to the Amish community after he stopped partying, he returned at the age of
In the novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck looks at the theme of loneliness as it affects many characters on the ranch. Crooks, Curley's wife, and Candy are the most excluded characters on the ranch, because they all have dreams that they will not be able to live out and they all are at loss when it came to companionship. Crooks is lonely because he is the only black man on the ranch. Since this book is set during the Depression, Jim Crow laws are still in effect, whites and blacks had separate facilities for socializing and living. Crooks comments that he can't live in the bunkhouse, and cant even play cards in there.
The Amish have been around since the early 1700s in the United States. They first migrated to Pennsylvania when they came from Switzerland and Germany. The Amish have spread to many other states, but today are primarily in the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania (Hostetler, 2009). The Amish have a unique way of life and have strong beliefs rooted in their faith. Today, the Amish are continuing to grow, because they are having such large families (Hostetler, 2009). The elderly population within the community plays an important aspect in the decision making and planning for the family. Through story-telling the elderly pass down to the next generations information about the culture itself. The Amish lifestyles and beliefs are what shape them as a community and what causes them to be at risk of illnesses and injuries more than other cultures around them.
The name Dee made people tremble and cower in fear. The evil Dee rose to power in the 1960s ruling the world with an iron fist. Amongst the oppressed was a boy named Don who understood that the evil Dee’s life was temporal. He wanted to tear asunder the evil Dee. He planned to enter the evil Dee’s court with a blithe attitude and stab the evil dee with his wrought iron sword. Ending the evil Dee’s life was the most efficacious way of ending the evil Dee’s reign and avenging his parents death. This was the only plan that the boy had come up with.
The novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck told the story of two wandering farmhands, George and Lennie. They had no other family, so they traveled together from plantation to plantation looking for work. Lennie had some minor mental disabilities, so George was in charge of keeping him in line. The farm they were at now had a lot of seemingly lonely people. The three characters that best depicted the theme of loneliness in the novel were Crooks, Candy, and Curley’s wife.
The Amish are a group of people that teach separation from the outside world. A group that originated from Switzerland is centered in the United States and Canada. Their rules as a society require farming and personal simplicity as their way of life. the luxury of having electricity and telephones are not accepted in this odd way of life. Their transportation is reduced to horse and carriages as a way for them to remain simple. These old order Amish traditions are very strictly enforced. Those who break from the Amish usually join the Mennonites, a society with similar rules and values, just less strict.
The second half of this week’ selections is from one of my favorite artists, none other than Big K.R.I.T. Keep the devil Off is the second single off of Big K.R.I.T.’s soon to be released double album 4eva Is a Mighty Long Time. Krizzle shines yet again as songwriter and track producer. What I truly enjoy about Big K.R.I.T. ‘s music is his ability to stay true to his southern roots without being boxed in by them. K.R.I.T. could have sampled part of the gospel-inspired track but having live instruments accompany his and Nikki Greer‘s vocals add so much more to this song. His willingness to chose right over easy has kept K.R.I.T. always relevant even when his popularity has waned.
‘..Guys like us that work on ranches are the loneliest guys in the world they got no family they don’t belong no place.’ This is what many felt during the ‘great depression’ in the 1930’s. John Steinbeck gives us the sense that many felt lonely ‘they got no family they don’t belong no place. The main theme of this novel is alienation; the three characters, Curley’s wife, candy, and crooks are all alienated, and felt it by another person at some point. They all have dreams... it’s the American dream... but not all dreams come true...