soc

Joy Prior
25 March 2010
Sociology 112
Section 4
Homework #7
Question #1
What impressed me about defending your honor was it lead back to who you wanted to honor. It the examples given in Worlds Apart Social Inequalities in a Global Economy demonstrated that the amount of “respect” one earns is a circumstantial.
The example that stood out to me the most was on page 166 the section when the author is talking about the “drug lords” compared to a judge. There were two points that struck me about the drug lord. First was that a drug dealer could become prestigious if he became a drug lord by “giving gifts, jobs, and protection to people within his neighborhood.” He could gain prestige in a given area by honoring the people in that area. Second I realized that no matter how much money the drug lord made he would not be honored the same as the judge in a court of law. The judge (a just judge) wants to respect the law, and they makes oaths to do so. In this situation the judge is honoring the law, and so in a circumstance were the law is respected the judged is honored. On the other hand the drug lord in the bench is not honored, because he is assumed to have dishonored the law. What I realized from this is that it in societies were gifts, jobs, and protection are honored the drug lord can become respected. In a society that honors justice, and protection from illegal trade the judge is honored.
In my civilizations class we read the French novel Pere Goirit. This chapter reminds me of Pere Goirit an elderly man who lives in the boarding house. When he first enters the boarding house he has nice clothing, but as he uses up his money his clothing becomes poorer, and he moves up towards the attack and the servant courters in the boarding house. More significantly in the novel when we are introduced to Pere Goirit’s daughters we learn that once his daughters married into high society they were embarrassed to speak his name in their homes, because of the fear that it might ruin their reputation. When one of his daughters begs her father for money Pere Goirit sues his son-in-law to get his daughter’s stolen dowry back. She then pleads with her father not to sue her husband so that he can save his name. The entire novel is about people in High Paris society with no money, low morals, and high concerns about obtaining prestige.
The characters in Pere Goirit did not have much honor in my opinion. There was cheating, gambling, immorality, and all the unimaginable. They did honor in their specific society though. Everything that the characters “moving” in the Paris society did was in worship of money, women, and vanity. This related to Worlds Apart Social Inequalities in a Global Economy because just like the drug lord was honored in his society the characters in Pere Goirit were honored in their society, because they honored the same things that society honored. The drug lord earned respect by ensuring gifts, jobs, and protection for his society. In Pere Goirit the character Rastingac earns respect in society by honor money, immorality, and vanity. I find it particularly interesting though that although the drug lord and Rastingac are honored in their society the society that they have built themselves up in is momentary and the drug lord ended up in a court of law, and Rastingac ended up penniless at Pere Goirit’s grave site.