Stubborn, headstrong, adamant and rigid, all synonyms for one term: Wooden- headedness. This phenomenon shows up multiple times throughout human history and has single handedly changed the world in many ways. Wooden-headedness is something that affects all factors of life, and in historian Barbara Tuchman’s piece March of Folly she correctly identifies its prevalence in human actions and decisions.
America during the 50s was an era of wooden-headedness. This was a time when communists were feared, different thinking was not allowed, and conformity was non-negotiable. The red scare was a sincere rough patch in America 's great history. The mentality was that if someone differed in any way or form from the norm, they were “dirty commie scum”. …show more content…
More specifically, wooden-headedness appears in a famous classic, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. In this book, Tom Robinson, an African American, is put on trial for a crime he claims he did not commit. Regardless of his innocence or guilt, Robinson’s trial is viewed in an unfair bias. In his case, he is accused of raping Mayella, the daughter of the bigoted Bob Ewell. Ewell sees Tom as a demon who acts out of pure animalistic lust, and assumes that he or any other African American man would rape any white woman given the chance. Tom himself gives his story as a man who just took pity on an injured, battered woman and offered his sincere and genuine help. He realizes his mistake, how he would be framed for this act, and runs at the first opportunity given. With the two stories on the table, it was up to the jury to make a decision. The decision could go either of two ways, accept the comfortable and normal story of a black man raping a white woman, or an unsettling story of a black man taking pity in a white woman. The juries wooden-headedness of staying in their current frame of mind and not daring to step out of it results in Tom being jailed for a crime he did not commit. wooden-headedness appears in many famous novels and To Kill a Mockingbird is simply one of the thousands proving how evident it is in the world of not only real life …show more content…
As an athlete, I see wooden-headedness every single day in every sport I do. To become world class at anything, it is said that 10,000 hours of deliberate practice are needed. One does not spend 10,000 hours on anything in life unless they are stubborn. This can be seen in football especially, the most successful player on the field is not always the biggest or strongest player, but the player who is stubborn enough to never be satisfied and to always strive for more. Throughout my career as a football player my coaches have mentioned several times to me how it 's not always the size of the dog in the fight, it 's the size of the fight in the dog. This rings true to me especially, I am not necessarily the biggest guy on the football field so I need to be stubborn and strong-willed to be able to play well with the big boys. If I decide to give in and allow myself to be blocked, pushed and stomped out of the way there is no place for me on the field as a football player. This same factor applies to my snowboarding career. There are thousands of tricks to learn in snowboarding, and if I am not stubborn enough to not give up after falling a few hundred times, there is no way I will ever improve or finally land the trick. When I first began snowboarding, I fell a lot, and when I say a lot, I mean I fell at least every minute. I could have easily given up, said “whatever” and given up, but due to my personal
America during the 50s was an era of wooden-headedness. This was a time when communists were feared, different thinking was not allowed, and conformity was non-negotiable. The red scare was a sincere rough patch in America 's great history. The mentality was that if someone differed in any way or form from the norm, they were “dirty commie scum”. …show more content…
More specifically, wooden-headedness appears in a famous classic, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. In this book, Tom Robinson, an African American, is put on trial for a crime he claims he did not commit. Regardless of his innocence or guilt, Robinson’s trial is viewed in an unfair bias. In his case, he is accused of raping Mayella, the daughter of the bigoted Bob Ewell. Ewell sees Tom as a demon who acts out of pure animalistic lust, and assumes that he or any other African American man would rape any white woman given the chance. Tom himself gives his story as a man who just took pity on an injured, battered woman and offered his sincere and genuine help. He realizes his mistake, how he would be framed for this act, and runs at the first opportunity given. With the two stories on the table, it was up to the jury to make a decision. The decision could go either of two ways, accept the comfortable and normal story of a black man raping a white woman, or an unsettling story of a black man taking pity in a white woman. The juries wooden-headedness of staying in their current frame of mind and not daring to step out of it results in Tom being jailed for a crime he did not commit. wooden-headedness appears in many famous novels and To Kill a Mockingbird is simply one of the thousands proving how evident it is in the world of not only real life …show more content…
As an athlete, I see wooden-headedness every single day in every sport I do. To become world class at anything, it is said that 10,000 hours of deliberate practice are needed. One does not spend 10,000 hours on anything in life unless they are stubborn. This can be seen in football especially, the most successful player on the field is not always the biggest or strongest player, but the player who is stubborn enough to never be satisfied and to always strive for more. Throughout my career as a football player my coaches have mentioned several times to me how it 's not always the size of the dog in the fight, it 's the size of the fight in the dog. This rings true to me especially, I am not necessarily the biggest guy on the football field so I need to be stubborn and strong-willed to be able to play well with the big boys. If I decide to give in and allow myself to be blocked, pushed and stomped out of the way there is no place for me on the field as a football player. This same factor applies to my snowboarding career. There are thousands of tricks to learn in snowboarding, and if I am not stubborn enough to not give up after falling a few hundred times, there is no way I will ever improve or finally land the trick. When I first began snowboarding, I fell a lot, and when I say a lot, I mean I fell at least every minute. I could have easily given up, said “whatever” and given up, but due to my personal