How Boys Become Men By John Katz Summary

Improved Essays
Charles Darwin said: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” People have been changed by different circumstances; if they want to live better, they should try to adapt to new environments. Children of immigrants must learn new languages and rules of behaviors in new countries that are different from their parents. School experiences also teach children how to be stronger and more mature, and how to better merge into society. There are unspoken codes that children must learn that can affect the way they grow up. People who want to adapt to new communities or new countries are impacted by language, childhood experiences, school, and some unspoken …show more content…
Besides academic education, students also need to know some principles that could help them to be mature; instead of teaching from teachers directly, students should learn some knowledge from themselves. (BETTER TRANSITION) In the article, “How Boys Become Men”, Jon Katz explains why men grow up to be insensitive. Boys ' growing up experiences has prepared their adulthoods, their attitudes and behaviors. Katz said, “More than anything else, boys are supposed to learn how to handle themselves” (317). In school, boys are pressured to be tough and not allowed to show any emotions and fears. If they show their fears in front of others, they might get mocked. Not only boys have affected by school experiences, but also girls does. In the article, “In Case You Ever Want To Go Home Again”, Barbara Kingsolver tells a story about herself; she was not popular in high school, and she did not fit the small town’s idea of beautiful. She was very tall and flat-chested. She said, “It’s relevant and slightly vengeful to confess here that I was not a hit in school, socially speaking. I was a bookworm who never quite fit her clothes. I managed to look fine in my school pictures, but as usual the truth lay elsewhere” (144). Most adolescents are rebellious in puberty; they think most teenagers have their own ideas, and they believe they could change their own behaviors. After Kingsolver becomes an author, she returns to her …show more content…
There are some informal rules that exist in children’s worlds, and these rules change their behaviors invisibly. In the article, “How Boys Become Men”, Jon Katz describes how men were impacted by their childhood experiences when they grew up. He said, “You don’t need to be a shrink to see how the lessons boys learn affect their behavior as men; they hide their weaknesses and fears from all, even those they care for. They’ve learned to be wary of intervening when they see others in trouble” (318). Most people will find out that the huge differences between their childhood experiences and reality when people grow up and look back. It is the way that people to be mature. In the article, “The Back Of The Bus”, Mary Mebane describes how her childhood experiences play an important role in her whole life(awkward)when she was growing up during the times of segregation. Mebane said, “For if he took on more passengers than got off, it meant that some of the newcomers would have to stand. And if they were white, the driver was going to have to ask a black passenger to move so that a white passenger could sit down” (170). Living through the times when white people treats black people so unfair, it would become the shadow of memories in her whole

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Nature versus nurture has been a scientific debate that has constantly been argued and discussed for decades. Both “Outliers” by Malcom Gladwell and the article focusing on the academic success and economic status of children whose parents are immigrants argue on the nurture side of it all and the accountability of environmental factors that are out of one’s control and are not just purely genetic.…

    • 65 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the article “the talk: after Ferguson, a shaded conversation about race” it is a mother speaking to her 8 year old son Jordan, who is African American just like herself and the child’s father who passed away not long after their son was born. Jordan was a wealthy and good looking kid, but as people grow up they change and kids (especially black kids) are no longer seen as cute. When black kids are beginning to no longer be kids people begin to view them in different ways. There are many racist people in this world and it causes the need for black kids to be very cautious of what they are doing. Kids learn about different races at a young age and especially black kids need to learn that some people treat them differently because their color/race.…

    • 1277 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This Boy’s Life Adolescence, it’s a time of change and development with many woes and hardships that can put a major toll on any kid in his or her life. Tobias Wolff portrays his difficult childhood through his immersive memoir, This Boy’s Life. He deals with many family issues like domestic violence and a mother that likes to move off to wherever her heart desires. This causes him to have a reckless childhood and end up in the wrong crowd of kids. His stepfather, Dwight always looked down upon him, made him his own puppet to toy with and took out all his anger on him.…

    • 907 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There is a shortage of high quality role models. When describing a respectable role model, particularly for young men, the definition is rather relative, ranging from courageous and strong to respectful and at times, vulnerable. By being able to physically and emotionally respect women while maintaining their independent moral values, men are able to provide role models for those around them, all while upholding a standard for themselves, as well. By gaining some form of consistency, boys will gradually become more independent of the popular thing to do, and more dependent on what is morally correct. By comparing Skidelsky’s “The Trouble with Boys” with Tony Porter’s Ted Talk titled, “A Call to Men”, this cycle of no role models and disrespect is identified with Porter’s real-life examples of violence and further exemplified through professional descriptions via Skidelsky.…

    • 1561 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Rod Ewdish 12/13/16 English 120 Professor Progar Men in Society Men go so far to prove what they fear than acquire what they truly desire. Throughout life, men are taught to be tough and to not express their true thoughts or emotions. The article “Bros before hoes,” written by Michael Kimmel, an American Sociologist specialized in gender studies, goes along and asks a number of men from different campuses and states what it simply means to be a man. What sorts of phrases or thoughts come to mind when someone instructs them to be a man. Richard T. Evans, a researcher of interdisciplinary studies, in “Faggots, Fame and Firepower” describes how most male shooters have been dismissed by their classmates/peers, both before and after their crime,…

    • 1909 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Botstein's Analysis

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Walking through the halls of high school I notice the behavior of some of the students. People mature differently, some may need more time while others will not. Few have the capability of graduating and leaving high school early and beginning life in what Leon Botstein, the president of Bard College, calls "the real world" (154). A high school student will graduate at age 18 after going through elementary, middle, and high school for four years, this system gives students a chance to attain knowledge in several subjects, find their interests, and to mature.…

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Have you ever felt like you were getting treated in an uneven way and like you are always messing up? Richard Wright sure does… Throughout the memoir Black Boy Richard has needs that he comes across through his three stages of life as a Black Boy. In this memoir Black Boy Richard struggles with the needs of safety throughout his childhood and adolescent, he then goes through self actualization as an adult.…

    • 879 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There is no set way of how a child will react or how well he will prosper when he is exposed to a new environment, but there are certainly evident pros and cons to each opinion. The only thing that determines how well a child will fit into the environment is himself, because finding a place where you truly belong in a new school, or in a different country is an extremely difficult…

    • 1032 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In her article “The Predicament of ‘Doing School’”, author Denise Clark Pope gives an insight into what students are actually learning in school. She did a study in which she evaluated the behavior of students a prep school called Faircrest High. She states, “Often their behavior contradicts the very traits and values many parents, students, and community members expect schools to instill. By rewarding certain kinds of success above others, Faircrest High may actually impede that which it hopes to achieve. Instead of fostering in its students traits such as honesty, integrity, cooperation, and respect, the school may be promoting deception, hostility, and anxiety.”…

    • 866 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    College Reflection

    • 841 Words
    • 4 Pages

    As I came to college, my family and I anticipated I would be following a simple mold of a conscientious student. One that is highly focused in some limited number of long term goals. Don 't get me wrong, this only meant that I had high expectations out of my college education. For some people, this path leads them to great success. But, I slowly realized my vision of success needed to have stories from different roads and bridges, than just one simple path.…

    • 841 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Immigrant children are among the most stressed children of their generation when it comes to today's time. In the past decades the percentage of immigrant children has increased from 4.7 percent to 12.9 percent. This significant increase is putting more children into poverty and ultimately setting them up for either failure or success with no grey area in-between. There is also the anxious thoughts put into their minds about being in a new place with unfamiliar people or objects, even sounds. These children need to learn skills that they would have never even thought about learning which to them, is the ultimate source of their stress.…

    • 546 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Cory Mackenson Character Development Hardships are inevitable in life. One would be burdened with the weight of the past if they did not keep moving forward. Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon illustrates the journey of a young boy, Cory Mackenson, as he navigates life and what it means to grow up. Living in a sheltered town in Zephyr, Alabama where seemingly nothing bad ever happens, Cory is ignorant about loss and hardships.…

    • 868 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Young boys and men may find mentors or advisors from the media, video games, sports and music. They may find it in the classrooms with their teachers or their coaches. They also may find it in gangs. These different forms of mentorships can impact how young boys learn and understand masculinity, either by encouraging negative forms of masculinity or positive forms. Overall, the documentary illustrates how societies expectations of men to remain unemotional and always in control has a negative impact on men.…

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    As many high school students graduate from high school they don’t know how to survive in the real world or they don’t know how to apply to colleges. Many students also lack knowledge because they may have work after school, they have homework, and they have to take care of themselves, which causes their lack of sleep. Lack of sleep is also a big problem since schools start so early. Finally, going through high school and college many students have lack of sleep and it affects their learning, and in high school they don’t even learn how to cook or pay their own bill’s, many people have tried to fix these problems in the past and they still do but there have been many problems with it and some schools have just given up and decided not to teach them.…

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Student Character Traits

    • 1160 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The way students act outside of the classroom, is the way that they also act in the classroom. It may take time to show it, but the character traits of each student will resemble how they are in a learning environment. Each student is a different person, and they all have different ways of learning, however, if they don’t have good character traits it will start to affect the way of learning. Character traits of high school students will effect them later on in their life. Having good character traits, turn into having good habits, and those habits help the students succeed in school.…

    • 1160 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays