Peer Pressure and Morals
Peer pressure. Bad decisions. Close calls. Consequences. In the reflective song “The Art of Peer Pressure”, Kendrick Lamar details a day where he was under peer pressure, made bad decisions, had close calls, and narrowly escaped the consequence of his actions. Lamar was with some friends smoking blunts that ended up to be laced with PCP. The combination of the PCP and peer pressure from his friends caused Lamar to agree to go along with his friends plan to rob a house. Throughout the song “The Art of Peer Pressure”, Kendrick Lamar creates a moralistically conflicted voice with a combination of diction choices, imagery and syntax choices. The story of how Lamar was with some friends and being with those friends influenced him to rob a house with them something he would not normally do was emphasised by various diction choices Lamar made. He knew that robbing a house would not turn out well for him and used the more conversational word “karma” instead of the word consequences to refer to how he thinks his actions would have repercussions, the use of the word “karma” is often used when speaking about morals and has a contrast in elevation with the word being more conversational than the most of his more colloquial word choices, because this diction choice is different elevation than his other word choices it helps create his moralistically conflicted voice as well as the fact that he is talking about the consequences of his actions, but since he
In The Contender by Robert Lipsyte, the character Alfred Brooks is a 17 year old African American high school dropout living with his aunt in Harlem. Alfred interacts with the theme, “don’t be affected by peer pressure.”. Alfred Brooks reacts to this concept in positive and negative ways. I feel that this theme is important to me, as well.
Arthur Miller 's play, "The Crucible," is a great example of people and their struggle with peer pressure. The play takes place in the town of Salem, Massachusetts, a small puritan community based on a very harsh system of truthfulness. When Reverend Parris discovers some of the girls dancing in the forest around a cauldron, he suspects something is going on. Rumors start to go around town speaking of witchcraft. These witchcraft rumors finally create the ultimate black cloud over Salem, affecting everyone beneath it.
By definition, peer pressure is described as social pressure by members of one’s peer group to take a certain action, adopt certain values, or otherwise confirm in order to be accepted. Considering peer pressure is something that everyone experiences, whether they wish to admit it or not, there are numerous definitions for it; especially since it affects everyone so differently.
Sometimes the two can go hand in hand being contributing factors of each other. Especially during adolescent years where peers encourage their friends to attend to behavior that is not part of their normal lifestyle. For instance, trying drugs for the first time, engaging in risky sexual behavior, and even encounters with alcohol. Even though these situations can end up being much more dangerous than intended, often times people do not back down because of what their peers may think of them. Friends follow along not knowing if they are even capable of a task because they feel they have a point to prove. Not to mention, there is pressures to be a part of groups like cliques and gangs, just as the local gangs in one’s urban community. According to Hallie Bourne, peer pressure is something that increases with age and begins to decline when an adolescence becomes independent from their family or guardian (Bourne, 2015). Similar to when Maria, decided to live a life of her own in New York for her and her unborn baby and become independent of her family back in Columbia where nothing was going
Kendrick Lamar’s third studio album, “To Pimp a Butterfly,” sheds light on the struggle of achieving rich and fame and the trials that come with. Rolling Stone and Billboard praised the album awarding it the best album of 2015. The album depicts the difficulties of fame by putting the trials and tribulations on display; the inability for those to adjust to their new lifestyle and the potential temptations that creep in. “To Pimp a Butterfly” has been both a divisive and uniting factor in its emergence in popular culture.
The corruptness of music today seems to be linked to the crude language and aggression found particularly in hip-hop and rap music. Some rap artists use vulgar language in their lyrics that are easily adoptable by teens (Holden). Not only have certain lyrics influenced the way teens speak but also their actions. An article on Headliners.org stated that “lyrics in the music are too violent and are to blame for many problems.” The problems range anywhere from suicide and aggression towards women to underage drinking and drug use. Lyrics are not only to blame, but also what people see in artists’ music videos can affect what they do (Doaks). The urge to emulate these rap musicians has escalated quickly causing a spike in rebellious tendencies among teens.
You ever been peer pressured into something you regret? Let me tell you about the time when I was peer pressured to jump off a bridge. It was my sophomore year summer, the scene around me was spirit-lifting, clouds were latched to the unending sky. So a couple of buddies and I decided to go swimming, we searched far and wide and we wanted to jump rocks. So my friend Ivan suggested we go to Jones Creek. I have only heard of Jones Creek once or twice from people at school, but haven’t actually had the chance to go. So we packed our stuff, threw it in the car and headed towards Jones Creek. My body was ecstatic with joy as I have never been cliff jumping. It was about an hour out from Hillsboro, a little bit pass tillamook.
The purpose of this literature review paper is to navigate and explore different effects in society towards peer pressure, conformity and rebellion. This study attempts to answer the following research questions: How does peer pressure, conformity, and rebellion affects adolescents in society? The main goal of this review is to have knowledge of the effects of this three concepts such as: peer pressure, conformity and rebellion.
The urban youth of today are highly influenced by the lyrics of the music they listen to. This music can be narrowed down to today’s version of hip-hop, or more commonly called rap. The youth are influenced by the lyrics and want to be like the rappers and live their lifestyle. What do these artists specifically talk about that want the youth to act this way? Most rap artists today produce the images of drug abuse, prostitution, money, and other topics such as drug dealing. What can be done by parents to stop this widespread urge in youth to become an idol to others? The fact is that with the United States constitution, not much can be done due to our freedom of
Going through Peer Pressure in middle school can be rough.If you are a new kid at a school then you should find good friends.If you have a friend that is always forcing you to do something then you shouldn't be his(or hers)friend.You should find a friend that helps you with anything you need.
Even though risky behavior and peer pressure can have a variety of different meanings for people, typically, it is a relation to drugs or alcohol. Most of the time, it seems that the most well-known types of peer pressure come from friends partaking in a substance such as drugs or alcohol and trying to persuade someone else in the group. According to the article “Peer pressure and risk-taking behaviors in children” by Lewis and Lewis (1984), peer pressure is a major factor in the development of risk-taking behaviors such as alcohol, drug, and tobacco use. (Lewis & Lewis, 1984) Not only are these risk-taking behaviors prevalent throughout life, but most specifically throughout college. In their book Monitoring the future national survey results on drug use Johnston, O’Malley, Bachman, and Schulenberg (2009), all suggest that the biggest difference between college students and their non-college peers is largely due to the environment at college. (Johnston et al., 2009)
For many years, the youth have been known for singing along to their favorite song and taking that song as whole and using it as their motto for life. It may seem that sometimes these kids do not know what is being said in the music but this shows that they do know what the lyrics are saying. According to Franklin B. Krohn and Frances L. Suazo in their article “Contemporary Urban Music: Controversial Messages in Hip-Hop and Rap Lyrics,” many teenagers and minority groups view rappers as their spokesmen because of their ability to speak in street language and bluntly express their frustration (Krohn, 1995). Unfortunately, hip hop lyrics usually tend to talk about drugs, sex and violence leading kids to think that everything they hear is okay and that is how they have to live their life. Yet, there are artists out there who take their lyricist skills to give positive lyrics and messages in their music, but these songs are not often played in the mainstream.
Kendrick Lamar took the music industry by storm last year after his release of his sophomore album To Pimp A Butterfly. Immediately, the album quickly became critically acclaimed and resulted in multiple awards such as winning four grammys this past winter. The album goes deep into Kendrick’s personal struggles as new found celebrity, while also touching on subjects surrounding the black community. For this paper I took a look at the standout song off the album Institutionalized, that deals with the internal struggle people go through in life because of the barriers of thinking they are imprisoned to in their lives. Along with this, the song also has elements that tie
There are various cause and effects of peer pressure. Peer pressure is pressure or influence from a person’s peers. Peers are often described people of the same age group or social group. Peers will feel the need to be in control and will often surround themselves with weak-minded or people with low self-esteem to have the do their bidding. The causes of peer pressure include the need to fit in, low self-esteem, fear of rejection, and at most time the need to feel safety and security from peers. The effects of peer pressure can be negative and also have the worst outcomes.
Peer pressure in society today has a negative effect on teens and schools should implement programs to help teens battle with peer pressure. Nowadays Peer pressure is a major problem in the lives of teens. These problems not only occur in school, but also outside of schools. If schools decide to implement programs teaching teenagers how to successfully battle peer pressure, a lot of decision-making for teens would be different. Not only in educational programs but in their everyday lives as well.