Julian Malile
Professor Tommasi
Expository Writing
2 December 2014
Writings Involvement with Self and Society The self is expressed in a multitude of ways ranging from speeches to television as well as writing. Not only that but as human beings it is instinctual to make an observation and write it down, but we tend to add our own personal view as to what we believe, or interpret something entirely else from the observation. By reading Karen Ho's "Biographies of Hegemony" and Jean Twenge's "An Army of One: Me" essays as well as Robert Thurman's "Wisdom" it is evident that each employed a distinctive argument and method to explain their views on what they wrote but what each of them shared in common was how their writing allowed their …show more content…

By Twenge talking about the expectations of our generation she is trying to make it evident that with increasing perfection we put higher stress on ourselves. When we do that we sometimes fail but because we believe we should follow our dreams it is believed we are entitled to that and if something stops us we blame it on others. Twenge's essay tries to tell how the "self" of our selves has "led to a darker side where others are blamed" (Twenge 497), this splits us up so Twenge is attempting to bring the "self" of our generation to come together with society to end this blaming. Twenge uses her ideas as to why the "self" and the "matter-of-fact self-focus of Generation Me"(Twenge 490) in her writing as a tactical move on her part to explore the reasons and opinions of society to see if they can agree with the change that she has viewed and studied and if change should occur. This also falls directing in line with how society views these areas of opinion and reason because it all depends on the readers own views and their "self". In Robert Thurman's "Wisdom" he states the "Buddha did not find one way to interpret things"(Thurman 448), so the self can interpret things like language and how society uses this language. Thurman's essay on the understanding of the "self" is a way for Thurman to reach society and help them understand that the "self" is not something that you just find but you must look for