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Individuality and Community

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Individuality and Community
Collin College

English 1302

Individuality!!! No Wait Community!!!!
As far back as time can go there has been the issue of individuality and community. To say the actual words together, individuality and community, the words themselves seem to be a paradox. In an earnest attempt to understand what those words mean in conjunction with race, social constructions, passions, and freedom, along with the intention of understanding the white moderate. As an outsider, I have been lead down a road that inevitably will be a dead end. However, this twisted mess of a road has had many pleasant and informative stops, some felt as if I was being invited to the family picnic on the fourth of July. Yet the next turn led me down a private darkened path. The journey has injured the heart, worn out the proverbial fingers, and enlightened me on several occasions. While I understand these issues, the complexity of it all may be explained by pure definition.
The term “Community” in human communities, is intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs, risks, and a number of other conditions may be present and common, affecting the identity of the participants and their degree of cohesiveness. “Individuality” is the state or quality of being. Example: a person separate from other persons and possessing his or her own needs, goals, and desires. Individualism can be a gift or a curse depending on the context in which it occurs. Because modern society finds it important that people think independently, decide autonomously and take personal initiatives, the concept of individualism has acquired a positive connotation. However, individualism is also linked with the tendency to withdraw from social life and turn in towards oneself.
All through history there have been struggles to “fit in” to be and individual while being part of the inclusive community. Yet to act as an individual, mainstream society will have a person thrown out of a community unless one conforms to their ways. While



Cited: “Abjection.” Wikipedia.org. Wikimedia. 20 Jan. 2013. Web. 17 Feb. 2013. “Community.” Wikipedia.org. Wikimedia. 20 Jan. 2013. Web. 17 Feb. 2013. Franklin, John Hope. “Train from Hate.” Reading Literature and Writing Argument 5th ed. Eds. Missy James and Alan P. Merickel. Boston: Pearson, 2013. 223-24. Print. “Individuality.” Wikipedia.org. Wikimedia. 20 Jan. 2013. Web. 17 Feb. 2013. King, Martin Luther, Jr. “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Reading Literature and Writing Argument 5th ed. Eds. Missy James and Alan P. Merickel. Boston: Pearson, 2013. 224-35. Print. Marquis, Don. “The Lesson of the Moth.” Reading Literature and Writing Argument 5th ed. Eds. Missy James and Alan P. Merickel. Boston: Pearson, 2013. 196-97. Print. Rodriguez, Richard. “The Chinese in All of Us.” Reading Literature and Writing Argument 5th ed. Eds. Missy James and Alan P. Merickel. Boston: Pearson, 2013. 242-48. Print.

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