L'individu et le groupe (document en anglais)

THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE GROUP: PORTFOLIO

Today, I’m going to introduce my portfolio to you. I have chosen to deal with the individual and the group. I’ve selected 3 documents.

The first document is the lyrics to the music "The Jet Song" from the musical "West Side Story". The story of this musical takes place in the West Side neighbourhood of Manhattan. It's a complicated love story between the two teenagers Tony and Maria who belong to two racially different gangs. Maria is from the Sharks gang (who are the Puerto Ricans) and Tony is from the Jets gang (who are the White Americans). The love between the two teenagers generates quarrels and provocations between the two gangs. In this song, Tony brags about his gang and gives the benefits of belonging to his gang.

For the second document, "A perpetual summer" is an excerpt from the book "The Coral Island" written by Robert Ballantyne and published in 1858. The story tells the adventures of three boys, Ralph Rover, 15, Jack Martin, 18, and Peterkin Gay, fourteen. They are the only survivors of a shipwreck on the coral reef of a large uninhabited Polynesian island. At first, their life on the island is idyllic; food, in the form of fruit, fish, and wild pigs, is plentiful, and using their only possessions, a broken telescope, an iron oar, and a small axe, they fashion a shelter and even build a small boat.

The last and third document is "The Positive and Negative Side of Peer Pressure You Need to Know". This is an article from a website published on December 26, 2016. It explains the different ways of dealing with peer pressure, especially among adolescents. For this, the positive and negative sides of this peer pressure are described.

Intro:

In my opinion, these documents raise the following question: does belonging to a group hinder the freedom of the individual? Can it be a brake on his happiness?

First, I would like to show you how belonging to a group can be a source of happiness for the individual. In the second, I will show you how, on the contrary, belonging to a group can hinder the freedom of the individual and be a brake on his happiness.

First of all, belonging to a group is a real source of happiness and a feeling of freedom.

First, in West Side Story, the individuals belong to a group and are extremely tight knit, they walk together and have the same beliefs. They need to belong to a group and are proud of it. Without this group, individuals would surely fall into the delinquency of their neighborhoods. The group effect thus allows them to stay in a frame in which they push each other upwards.

Then, in the Internet article on peer pressure, we notice that peers and therefore people in the same group can teach you good things about life and push you to continue them and can help you have good habits of life. Peers can also persuade you to change your life constructively. It is therefore quite true that the individual in a group can be influenced in a good way.

Finally, in "A perpetual summer", the 3 friends are really extremely united, thanks to this group of 3, they manage to surpass themselves and pool their abilities to start creating a life on this island by building a shelter there, a boat, clothes, shoes… The group effect is therefore very positive and everything seems idyllic on this island. Indeed, only happiness reigns between them, food is abundant, the place is heavenly and nothing is missing. In addition, alone on this island between boys, they feel absolute freedom. Here, the group is therefore a source of happiness and freedom for the individual.

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