Questins

James Hungerford
Christy Vance
English 102
February 21, 2011
The American Man at Age Ten Questions
Well I think that the main point that Susan is trying to say is that what happens and what people hear as kids can stick with them throughout there whole life. Humans can be conditioned when there young they are very vulnerable. I have a quote from the essay that really expresses this. “The collision in his mind of what he understands, what he hears, what he figures out, what popular culture pours into him, what he knows, what he pretends to know, and what he imagines, makes an interesting mess. The mess often has the form of what he will probably think like when he is a grown man, but the content of what he is like as a little boy” (Orlean 256). I agree with this not to say people cannot change and be different from there past environments but the influences that are friends, family and media are there everyday and you just become influenced by it without even realizing it.
Some Artifacts that stuck out to me that really brings home this idea that I have mentioned above is when Susan quizzes Colin about world views. “Who’s the coolest person in the world?” “Morgan Freeman.” “What is the best sport?” “Football”(Orlean 258). This shows you his view is of a typical 10 year old. The answer’s he provides is what he has learned from other people or media he might not even understand or like football but it is what he sees his dad watching or friends talking about the big game. This definitely shows you the influence of are environment when you just ask a ten year old about his world views.
Susan Went to the Montclair Cooperative school and several other places where Colin and his friends would hang out and did extensive observations about everything going on around her especially if it involved Colin. Susan interviewed Colin buy asking him random questions about his life. The big question in the essay seems to be does are child hood environment effect how we portray the world and what we expect from it. I say this because it seems she just emphasizes this buy giving us all this information about Colin’s views on life.