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Savannah HullMrs. Southerly English 10116 July 2014WP#3 DraftThere are many ways that a society can be studied, such as through its art or media. Through analysis of contemporary entertainment media, analyzers can pick out standards and moral values that directly reflect modern society. ?In today’s society, teenagers are often negatively judged because they are in this specific age group that has an adverse connotation attached to it. This can be analyzed through Michael Parenti’s article, “Class and Virtue”, of Neal Shusterman’s book, Unsouled. ?The book Unsouled both supports and refutes Michael Parenti’s argument in “Class and Virtue” that the lower class is less virtuous than the upper class, reflecting modern society, in this case, by: teens being the lower class yet being more virtue than the upper class, and the upper class and lower class having a defining quota to fit. Michael Parenti’s “Class and Virtue” argues that the entertainment media presents lower class people with less virtue than the upper class people. Through multiple examples such as Treasure Island and The Three Faces of Eve, Parenti describes why his argument is accurate. He also goes further and applies his argument about class and virtue to gender and race using The A-Team and Pretty Woman as supporting examples (Parenti). Although this article was written in 1995, it still relates to the entertainment media in today’s society. In some cases, it is discreet and not as blatant; however, it is still there nonetheless. The book Unsouled is the third book to the Unwind Series which is about three teens: Connor Lassiter, Lev Calder, and Risa Ward. It continues their journey of trying to escape unwinding while bravely attempting to change the world around them for the better. In this dystopian society taking place in the United States of America, unwinding is a procedure performed on people who are burdens on society. They are taken apart limb by limb while alive, becoming donors to the rest of the population. By law, parents can unwind their problematic and delinquent children from the age of 13 to 18, so that they can live a better life in a “divided state” (Shusterman). Connor Lassiter’s parents chose to have him unwound because he was violent and a problem child. Lev Calder was a tithe, which is a person who was determined to be unwound at birth for religious reasons. Risa Ward was a ward of the state, and since the facility that she resided in had a budget cut, they had to unwind some of their children because of the lack of resources and money. Risa was one of those that were unlucky. The three of these teenagers meet through unfortunate circumstances and eventually become famous for even more unfortunate reasons (Shusterman).In Unsouled, the teenagers are the lower class people of the society. There are many teens who escape the Juvenile Authority (people in charge of taking the unwinds to harvest camps, where they are eventually unwound) and become AWOL unwinds. These, now homeless, teens roam the cities while and stealing, destroying, and killing in order to survive, resulting in a fear of these feral teens by the rest of the society. The adults created this system that makes the teenagers automatic criminals, whether they deserve the title or not (Shusterman). In “Class and Virtue”, Parenti states how in Treasure Island “Long John and his men, by definition, will be “stealing” the treasure, while the squire will be “discovering” it” (Parenti). As both of these groups are searching for the same lost treasure, the lower class pirates will be stealing, but the rich man will be discovering (Parenti). This shows how the lower class people are considered evil by default because of their status. A political advertisement in Unsouled states:My Grandma won’t talk about it, but she remembers a time when cars burned in the street and bars on windows weren’t enough to keep the danger out. She remembers when feral teens terrorized our neighborhood and no one felt safe. Well, it’s happening again. The Cap-17 law let thousands of seventeen-year-old incorrigibles back into the streets and severely limits the age for which parents can choose unwinding. Last week a boy on my block was stabbed by one of them on his way to school, and I’m afraid I’ll be next. Call or write your congressperson today. Tell them you want the Cap-17 law repealed. Let’s make the streets safe again for kids like me! (Shusterman, 49-50)This advertisement is trying to convince people that the Cap-17 law, which changed the maximum age of unwinding from 18 to 17, needs to be repealed. Using the previous quote from Parenti’s article, we see that the same idea is also evident in the advertisement from Unsouled. The teenagers are destructive criminals by default, so the solution is to unwind them. Although it seems like the teenagers are the real threat, they are actually the ones trying to change the corrupt system. As the book continues, and concludes, it is evident that the lower class teenagers were, for the most part, more virtuous than the upper class. Similar characteristics are seen in the society today, such as the way people treat teenagers. In many cases, if people see a group of senior citizens and a group of teenagers next to a crime scene, they are more likely going to accuse the teenagers of committing the crime rather than the senior citizens. Although this example seems hyperbolic, it creates an image that many people can agree with. Just because a person is within their teen years, does not mean that they have fewer virtues than others. In Unsouled, Camus Comprix, a human made completely of unwind parts, got major media attention because he was the first of his kind. Camus’ parts were all taken from the best that his creators, the Proactive Citizenry, could find. He fluently spoke many languages, contained unimaginable intelligence, had the perfect muscle tones, and much more that natural processes could not simply give one man. He had flawless qualities, was “seamlessly woven”, and was at the top of the upper class (Shusterman). He was expected to have firm values, but often didn’t reach them. Camus was used to getting what he asked for and was guilty of doing whatever it took get what he wanted. Being in his late teens or early twenties, was made purposefully to be a symbol of youth, yet not part of the lower class teenagers that he was essentially comprised of (Shusterman). When comparing Camus to the squire in Treasure Island, an example Parenti used in “Class and Virtue”, it is seen that they both have the rich look and character about them. The upper class is not depicted in Unsouled, as dressing “slovenly, speaking in guttural accents, and drinking rum” (Parenti). The correlation between these two writings says that today’s society supports Parenti’s argument of the upper class being more proper, well-dressed, and poised than the lower class. However, it refutes his argument because it is made obvious that Camus and the rest of his family at the Proactive Citizenry do not have strong moral values. Media during Parenti’s time showed the upper class being virtuous, while Unsouled represents them as people of little virtue. In today’s society, only certain people are held to this expectation of virtue relating to upper class. Our elected officials and leaders are expected to hold this standard of virtue for the upper class; however we do not hold the upper class people of entertainment to this same standard. Focusing at music artists and actors, it is evident that there are an overwhelming amount of them who seem to have little to no morals. Shockingly, society accepts that they aren’t this virtuous example that they used to be in the late twentieth century entertainment; yet when show that they have morals and virtues, we are astonished. It seems like this is a double standard for the upper class, and a ridiculous exception. As previously explained about teenagers today, society expects them to be crazy, reckless, and have no morals; and yet again, people are surprised when they do. Of course these statements do not apply to the whole populations of people in the categories mentioned; however they do apply to the majority. Throughout the analysis of Parenti’s “Class and Virtue” and Shusterman’s Unsouled, it has been found that society still holds people to these standards of virtue relating to class, but not everyone. The upper class is only partly supposed to be virtuous, while the lower class has no expectations. Then, when looked into, the lower class has firm virtues while the upper class creates this fa?ade that they do, when in actuality they do not. The views and standards of society of today seem to be conflicted, making it weak as a whole. Future generations will look back and recognize the same patterns throughout study and research. A confused and unvirtuous society is not what they should be concluding from the remains, but a society with high morals and firm declaration of strength. ? Works CitedParenti, Michael. “Class and Virtue.” Signs of Life in the U.S.A.: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers. Maasik, Sonia, and Soloman, Jack. October 1995. Web. 16 July 2014.Shusterman, Neal. Unsouled. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2013.Print. ................
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