Analysis Of Susan Faludi's The Naked Citadel

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All members of society are incorporated or affiliated with some type of institution whether formal or informal in their lifetime that has the potential to influence them. Whether it be the educational institutions they experience in their young adult life or the family household they have grown up there whole life to, it is evident the amount of significance institutions have in influencing one’s beliefs and moralities throughout life. In Susan Faludi’s “The Naked Citadel”, the author explores a specific male only educational institution known as the Citadel and the repercussion that come with attending a male segregated institution. In Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Power of Context”, the writer highlights the amount of strength one’s environment …show more content…
The public educational system in the United States is an experience nearly every young individual in the country experiences. Davidson’s advocation for the implementation of the method of crowdsourcing in the public education system was illustrated through a personal anecdote of a teacher who didn’t teach for the test, but for learning itself. Describing the accomplishments of the educator Davidson articulates, “My mother-in-law taught in the three-room schoolhouse in Mountain View. For many years, there were more former residents of Mountain View with PhDs, MDs or law degrees than from any other town in Alberta besides the two major cities in the providence.” (Davidson 64). Every single class graduated by this educator has experienced through the years education that has given them the potential to achieve prominent success in their academic careers. Public educational institutions, like the successful institution mentioned by Davidson, have passed down ideals and morals that are truly incorporated in students’ lives. In this case, the educational experience of these group of students have allowed them to be taught the importance and ideals of taking advantage of education encouraging them to succeed in obtaining one of the highest educational achievements. The environment these group of students …show more content…
“Institutions that boast of their insularity, whether convents to military academics, are commonly pictured in the public imagination as static, unchanging abstractions, isolated from the ebb and flow of current events.” (Faludi 82). Faludi emphasizes the amount of isolation the comes through the exclusion of women in the Citadel and the forming of ideas and beliefs in a social group that is developed through a common experience produced by an institution. The masculine culture that has been developed through the circumstances of the policies of the institution has both allowed and encouraged the patriarchal beliefs and thus developed their meaning of what is right and what is wrong. Along with this educational institution passing down sexist beliefs through the surrounding culture that these cadets are surrounded with, they been proven to be go to extreme with their actions of attacking that have emphasized the massive influence an institution has in bequeathing a sense of what is right and wrong. Whether it be a military college or secondary public education, the environment surrounded by the specific institution can also play a major role in the development of one’s sense of what is right and what is wrong. Gladwell reveals this argument through evidence of “Studies of juvenile delinquency and high school

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