AP English Blog 10/31/14

Cultural Norms. They hold us together as a culture, but separate us from being unique individuals at the same time. A society’s cultural norms are the set of laws in society that in some way run America. The set of cultural norms in one’s society then leads the individual to become molded by those cultural norms. They influence actions of society today and how individuals interact with others within their own culture. In The Importance of Being Ernest, cultural norms are very obvious. We see elite, high end individuals living among one another, judging each other over what they eat or how they dress. In All Things Fall Apart, we see a man who has several wives and can legally beat them. Different norms are accepted in different cultures, which was shown in both novels. 

Society, today, is very particular. You need to dress, look, and act a certain way to be accepted by society. We are very into electronics and social media is everywhere that we look. We interact, get news, and talk to one another through social media. It is a cultural norm to rely and have a Facebook and Twitter. In The Importance of Being Ernest, it is a cultural norm to eat pastries and dress in dresses all day every day. You must marry someone with an elite name, such as Ernest. If they didn’t conform with an expectation, they were looked down upon, which is how today’s society acts towards us. Not only in elite societies, but in lower classes, such as in All Things Fall Apart, the cultural norms are different from ours. If men went around beating their wives today, or even having more than one wife in our society, they would be looked down on. Okonowa beat his wives and his friend had over thirty! Just seeing how different each society is, is fascinating. We only usually hear about our own society’s and we forget that each society is different.