Example Vignette
Culture Shock

*THIS PAPER IS FOR EXAMPLE PURPOSES ONLY.
STUDENTS MAY NOT USE ANY PART OF THIS PAPER. IN THE CASE WHERE STUDENTS USE ANY PART OF THE PAPER FOR THEIR ASSIGNMENT, STUDENTS WILL RECEIVE A ZERO.

Kyle Raider
Sociology 100
Vignette Paper 1: Culture Shock

Word count: 2095

Part One

    The following is a story of when I experienced Culture Shock. Culture Shock is defined as: “the disorientation that people feel when they encounter cultures radically different from their own and believe they cannot depend on their own taken for granted experiences.” (Kendall, Sociology in Our Times: The Essentials)

    It was an unusually warm Thursday morning; or at least I thought so. To me, the humid absence of tradewinds seemed unusual. I surveyed the strange faces around me. None of them appeared to notice the lack of a breeze; and why would they? After all, I was in Town. This wasn’t the eastside, with the cool trades and jagged Koolaus ever present. This was Town, a foreign area with excessive concrete, shopping centers, and stale air. I had previously only come to Honolulu on rare occasion, but this was a new era. It was my first day of private high school, and the lack of a breeze reminded me I was no longer at home. In fact, it unsettled something deep within me. 

    As I looked around, gripped by this nervousness, I took notice that everyone was looking at me. This surprised me at the time, but in a matter of hours I would realize the reason. I looked down, and walked into the front office, away from the stares. A friendly older woman provided me with the basics, a class schedule, directions, etc… I noticed that she too immediately recognized my twin sister and I as the new kids.

    My schedule was identical to my sister's, and after some minor wandering, we reached our classes. When I found my seat, I realized why everyone could pick me out. It wouldn’t be hard to do; we were the only haole kids. But this was different from middle school, where one year my sister and I were two of the only four haoles in the class. These students weren’t like the local kids from Kailua or Waimanalo. Instead, most of these kids were majority or even full Japanese. Therefore, my sister and I stuck out, and in a way we weren’t used to. 

    So there I was, out of my element (If just by a dozen miles), unable to blend in, and as I soon realized, with no one talking to me. Naturally, this didn’t make me feel like I wanted to be in this school. My sister and I began trying to talk to people. We did our best with small talk. I said something to my fellow students about not enjoying being in class, with the aims of commiserating. Curiously enough, they were not very receptive to what I thought was a universal among kids my age: some contempt for school. I soon found that even something as trivial as small talk differed from Kailua.

    A little slighted on small talk, I turned to my fellow students who seemed more receptive. The girls were much friendlier than the guys, and much prettier too. I asked them about the school, what they did on weekends, if they went to parties, and etc… Though the girls seemed receptive, I apparently crossed several lines which, coming from Kailua, I did not know existed. The girls and guys who were listening in thought I was crazy. It was apparent that everyone was incredibly oriented around the school. I was told that in their free time, people studied. I was told of ludicrous amounts of homework. And everyone became very excitable at the mere mention of parties. Within the first five minutes, it seemed my sister and I had unintentionally created a reputation as the kids who hated school, were “too” involved with the social scene for having just arrived at the school, and went to crazy parties.

    As the days and the weeks wore on, this reputation stuck. My sister and I could not understand where it was coming from. In Kailua, we generally did well in school. Most of my friends and classmates in junior high thought of me as smart. I had done excellent on tests and papers. I definitely had not been one of the “bad kids”, always getting in scraps or mixed up with drugs. Here, at this school in town, I was suddenly a punk. I supposedly hated school, wasn’t very smart, partied hard, and a host of other things. It was disorienting, not understanding how this culture was structured, and therefore I kept crossing lines. The first, as I already explained, was speaking out against school. This was breaking a more, as school was taken incredibly seriously.  Second, the mere mention of partying, a rebellious act, was also a taboo. It was considered inappropriate, almost outlandish. Because I had spoken unfavorably of school and violated other norms, I was  thought to be dumb, or maybe even a delinquent. In this strange culture, my sister and I could not figure out which way was up. The school was full of townies, and they had their own ways. The confusion resulted in us disliking school genuinely, resulting in more negative feedback from our peers, and continuing this downward spiral. 

    Let me assure the reader that in the moment, five years ago, I did not have the same analytical ability that I do in this writing. I simply tried to act as I knew to act, and people had a negative reaction. What I knew seemed worthless, and I couldn’t understand why people were responding in the way they did. The climax came when a fellow student began to mock my sister, probably calling her dumb. My sister responded how a kid from Kailua Intermediate would respond; asking him what his fucking problem was, and if he was looking for a scrap -- yes, my sister! In Kailua, this may have been appropriate, or at least not unusual. However, this violated yet another serious more. The student who was harassing my sister immediately began telling everyone what happened and building drama. Apparently, no one ever fought at this school, so my sister had unwittingly started something huge. Everyone was amazed and very excited, while my sister and I were left in even deeper confusion. My sister simply did what she knew, and that did not fit this culture we were in. 

    In typical Townie fashion, this conflict was resolved by the school’s administration. Someone told a teacher about the drama, and my sister and this student were forced to apologize. However, this event cemented my place as a “bad kid”. Everything I had known, everything I had done in social situations, had been challenged, as it triggered a negative reaction in this culture. I was surprised and baffled by the vast differences in this school from any previous one. Fortunately, this confusion was not permanent. I experienced some resocialization, as did my classmates. For a year or so, my culture shock dragged on, but I gradually began picking up on the norms and subtleties of this new culture. People got to know me better, as I became assimilated, in part. My classmates too became more accepting. Soon, many of them became exhausted with school, and more interested in outside activities, even partying. I made several good friends (although all but one live on the eastside). However, there still remained people who, until graduation day, were distant to me. Perhaps, unlike others whom adapted, they still perceived me as violating some mores I never fully understood. This was my experience entering another culture, and the subsequent disorientation and challenging of my basic understanding which accompanied it. 

Part 2

    A Conflict Perspective is one of competition. The conflict theorist supposes that society is structured by a competition between different groups over limited resources. The result is a conflict between the groups, and often one will rise above the others. By identifying the dominant group, and how it retains control over the scarce resources, a social structure can be defined. Conflict theorists look at how one group dominates, and the others rebel, and subsequently see all aspects of society stemming from this conflict. Therefore, the conflict perspective is considered a macro theory in sociology, as it uses the big picture to understand smaller interactions. 

    If the Conflict Perspective is applied to my culture shock story above, the result is very interesting. Perhaps my sister and I could be considered one group, the “new” group. When we arrived at the school, there was a popular group already established there, and they did not like us. The conflict theorist would say we were competing with this “established” group, in conflict with them over some limited resource. So what was this resource? Perhaps the easiest way to describe this situation would be as a competition for popularity or influence.  Essentially, the “new” and the “established” were fighting over power, or rule, in the high school kingdom. I say this because whichever group is popular sets the standard for what is cool. The “established” fear losing this power too the new group. 

    So now we have established how a conflict theorist might see the interaction between me and my classmates. It is a struggle, a competition. The “new” wants their ways, my culture, to not be condemned. The “established” fear that the “new” culture, which often unintentionally clashes with their norms, is challenging their way of life. If the “new” becomes popular, extends their influence, becomes acceptable, the “established” might become the new outcast, or at least have their power reduced. Therefore, they try to ignore and isolate the new, to define them as outcasts. Thus the rumors about being dumb, crazy, or rude, spring forth. Though these rumors and opinions stem from the accidental violation of mores by the “new”, they are furthered by the “established” to sully the “new”. The “new” are the bad kids, the ones you do not want to be. You want to be like the “established”. An excellent example is in my sister's altercation with a fellow student. My sister did violate a more, not foreseeing the consequences of challenging the student to a physical altercation. This was due to the disorientation she was experiencing as part of culture shock. However, the “established” dramatized the event and made sure everyone heard it to assert their rightful place over the despicable “new”. A conflict theorist reaches this conclusion by looking at the overall struggle, based specifically on the structure of the 'society', to understand the individual's actions in society. This is key for the conflict perspective.

    Another hallmark of the conflict perspective is the control of institutions, and using them to retain power. Students cannot absolutely control the faculty of the school. However, the “established” might have a track record with the faculty as being on the “right side” of the law, opposed to the radical “new”. Teachers therefore are more inclined to side with the “established”, as they are the majority, and prominent figures in that culture. The “new”, confused as we were, did not reflect the values the faculty had come to expect from the established. A conflict theorist might define this as control of the institution.  The “established” bent the faculty to its interest when it reported my sister's altercation with the student. Instead of letting the incident fizzle, this opened an investigation. Thus, the “established” prolonged the drama and had a formal institution reaffirm their control and righteous popularity. 

One must question the conflict theorist: why didn't the two groups remain locked in this struggle, fueling these nasty interactions, for all four years of high school? It is a very valid question, and one that is, in fact, addressed by conflict theory: Why did the conflict end, or at very least, dissipate? The answer is the emerging of a middle ground. The “new” and the “established” were no longer so polarized. The “new” began to understand the norms of the culture they had entered. The “established”, perhaps due to the reduced stigma on the assimilating “news”, witnessed a disillusionment with what was once a rigid system. The “new” gained more respect for school, while the “established” learned value for other activities. In a sense, it was no longer the “new” and the “established”. Just like Marx’s argument that class conflict was necessary for change, a newer, more evolved group emerged from the two groups. Except rather than between the Bourgeoisie and Proletariat, this new group combined and created something even better.

This story of culture shock, applied under the lens of class conflict, is one of struggle. However, it is heartening to see a potential resolution through a transformation in society.