Stereotyping: Lord of The Flies, Romeo and Juliet

Stereotyping is a delicate and often hurtful subject to deal with. People often categorize others to make themselves look better. Many different factors contribute to stereotyping such as: clothes, family/backgrounds, friends, etc. What stereotyping is usually explains why people stereotype. Once we know why stereotyping takes place we can usually find a way to prevent it. Stereotyping is found just about everywhere, including in novels such as Lord of the Flies and plays such as Romeo and Juliet. Stereotyping leaves a great repercussion on individuals as well as on society.

Stereotyping is when we separate ourselves from others who are different from us. Stereotypes are impressions of entire groups of people. They are more powerful and dangerous than individual impressions because they involve the false assumption that all members of a group share the same characteristics. When you take a group of friends, or people that hang out together and automatically assume they are all alike, you are stereotyping them. You must consider peoples different personalities and traits to fully understand them and not judge them. Stereotyping is believing one similarity between different people automatically makes them one in the same.

There are many reasons why we stereotype each other. One is usually to gain personal attention and to give off the impression that we are, in fact, normal. We also try to show that the person who is being stereotyped is not because they are, in our minds, different. People have somehow come to the conclusion that being different is, for some reason, wrong and to be normal you must draw attention away from your own flaws and attract attention to others. The clothes we wear, the way we do our hair, the people we hang out with, this all adds to our uniqueness. This diverseness should not be discriminating towards anyone. The way we do in school also adds to the list of stereotypes. Some kids feel they have to do poorly in order to avoid names such as “brain”, “browner”, or something that can be as complimenting as smart or intelligent. On the other hand, some kids would love to be as smart as others but can’t allow themselves to ruin their reputation or waste time they could be with their friends to go in and get help after class. Nowadays, our intellect is sometimes a matter between popularity or being a slacker. In most ways, your family, background and culture may have a big impact on your life. If you have lots of money and are able to buy expensive clothes and maybe your parents are away all the time, so you can throw parties every weekend, this makes you popular. All you have to do is be liked and idolized by a few people and your world becomes better than most peoples’. If you are raised by a single parent and you can not afford brand-name clothes and this gives you a low self-esteem, and a bad outlook on life, you can’t expect to be that popular with people if you keep bringing them down. If you can’t treat people or situations with esteem and regard, people aren’t going to look at you with admiration.

Almost all schools are composed of groups of youths that are categorized by the way they dress and who they hang out with. Groups of kids such as “skaters”, “gothics”, “preps”, etc. sometimes feel criticized by the way they are treated by the way they dress. Then why do they keep dressing this way? Simply because they want to be individuals. You are going to receive more looks going down the hall and receive more or less attention because of what reputation your clothes give you. If someone wanted to get away from the hassle of stereotyping, all they’d have to do is dress normally. But what is normal? Is normal a school full of preps without individuality. Would a Nike, Reebok, or Addidas sign be the only difference between students? Would everyone then receive the same amount of attention and would all sports be popular and all teachers be respected. Would the “smoking area” no longer have to exist? Where is the individuality and uniqueness that makes school interesting? Life is full of stereotypical monstrosities. Perhaps school uniforms would be a more objective solution. It would be impossible to expect that not even a dozen of kids would find a clause on the policy and change something about their outfits. Whether it be untucking their shirt or adding a pair of platform boots. Then, once again stereotyping would occur. People try to be like someone they like, if they dress like their friends, it is just a reflection of admiration, it doesn’t mean their personalities match their friends’ also.

If you wear certain clothes, you are categorized and put into a group whether you like it or not. People are going to look at you and say, “well, there’s a skater if you ever saw one,” or “can her skirt be any shorter?” If you wear black lipstick, black eye liner, black nail polish, black clothes and make your face pale, you are considered a devil-worshipping, drug-using, freak. If you wear clothes that are too-revealing, you’re considered a slut. It is as simple as that. The very unfair reality is that if you want to dress like an individual, you should be prepared to accept the consequences of being stereotyped and labelled. To overcome stereotypical treatment, you will have to change to fit society’s image of normal.

In the novel Lord of the Flies and the play Romeo and Juliet, there were characters that were unfairly treated by others. Piggy, a character from Lord of the Flies, was called names and treated with great disrespect. This was all because he was over weight, had to wear glasses, and had asthma. Piggy was extremely intelligent and no one ever realized this because they were too busy ignoring him and when they were not doing this, they were making fun of him. Piggy’s profound intellect could have had a great impact on the boys rescue situation, instead, the other kids on the island constantly ridiculed him for everything he did. They walked all over him and no one was ever punished. In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo himself was undoubtedly stereotyped. Juliet’s family, the Capulets, assumed Romeo was a terrible boy just because of his last name. The Capulets and Montagues were too busy feuding to realize their children and their children’s love was being hurt. If the Capulets had looked beyond Romeo’s parents and seen his love for Juliet was true, maybe the feud would have subsided and the death’s of their children could have been spared.

Stereotyping, in most cases, can easily be prevented, but in order for it to be averted, your beliefs that everyone is equal may be destroyed. The truth of the matter is that society produces an element of hate and rejection to anything that is different. You must be able to overcome the judgement and prejudice of others and stand up for what you believe in. You should not let others shatter your individuality just to be accepted under false pretences into popularity. Distinction between people is exhibited and demonstrated in many different ways, clothes and friends are a major part of it. As superficial as it is, if you look or act different from the majority of society, you are going to receive unfair treatment.