16th
Comparative Analysis: Reviving Ophelia & Real Boys
Like Mary Pipher in her book, Reviving Ophelia, William Pollack in his book, Real Boys, describes the troubles that adolescents face in everyday life. They explore the various issues that these adolescents come across at school, with media, society, with their peers, and situations encountered with family. Both authors interpret situations from patients and research from which they have observed. They use this in order to make sense of what the newer generation of adolescents is experiencing and also to try to break the views that the media and society have on these young adults. In some cases both authors share similar views and in other cases, the authors seem to take different approaches to situations. While Pollack discusses the “Boy Code” that he claims is a major issue that adolescent boys face, Pipher uses Ophelia, a character from a Shakespearean play, as a symbolic figure to describe the troubles that adolescent girls encounter.
Society seems to be one of the biggest issues that Pipher and Pollack both state puts pressure on these children. The media depicts how an individual should look and how they should act. For girls, Pipher claims that the media influences them to be thin and compliant to what others want and society further pushes these girls to fit these views. Similarly, Pollack claims that the media also has a negative impact on the image of adolescent boys. The media portrays these boys to have an aggressive, masculine exterior and society adds to this image by disapproving any expression of feelings.
Pipher describes how television, magazines, the radio, and practically any sort of exposure including school seems to contribute to an image that these adolescents have, that they feel that they should fit into. Pollack describes this image as the “Boy Code”, for adolescent boys. He uses this to illustrate the strain that this code puts on these boys. The code represents an image that these boys are forced to follow of face the consequences of being an outcast from society. Although Pipher does not explicitly categorize an image of a girl into a code, she does take a similar approach to describing the image that girls are influenced to be in order to fit into society’s views. In her approach, she uses a symbolic figure to describe how troubled and voiceless adolescent girl feel in the face of peer pressure, society and the media. Pipher and Pollack describe the limits that girls and boys are limited to. Adolescent boys are suppose to mask their feelings, show masculinity, “be tough should demand respect from others” and also should not display characteristics that adolescent girls are imagined to portray, such as showing any type of emotion. Adolescent girls are expected to be a thin, seductive character that ends up being the very thing that endangers their physical and mental wellbeing. These views, as Pipher and Pollack claim, contribute to decreases in self-esteem and continue pushing adolescent into a confusing bind that leads some of them to serious states of depression.
Peer pressure is another aspect that Pipher and Pollack discuss contributes to the strain that girls and boys face through adolescents. Through her many cases, Pipher finds that most adolescent girls find the need to compare and compete with their peers on things such as physical appearance. The major issues that girls encounter are anorexia, bulimia, alcohol, drugs and sex. In the path for peer approval, most adolescents loose sight of who they are as well as who they used to consider as friends. Most girls, as Piper explains, have a hard time keeping a friendly relationship with boys as they did before adolescents. Pipher claims that “while peers can be satisfying and growth producing, they can also be growth destroying” (Pipher 68). She talks about how girls who are attentive to social pressure, who form obsessions about their weight, some girls revert to drinking and doing drugs to feel that they belong to a group, while others are pressured into engaging in sexual activity. Pollack on the other hand, states that boys are underestimated in terms of the intensity on the same pressures that girls are faced with. He claims that boys are shaped more by their peers than by their own individuality. To avoid being rejected by their peers, Pollack suggests, boys tend to disguise their emotions and express a “hardened” exterior, portraying themselves as a tough, masculine character. In a sense both authors describe adolescents being voiceless to their genuine selves in order to fit into their characteristic roles as influenced by their peers.
The confusion of how adolescents should behave and how they want to behave pushes them into confusion. This frustration, as Pipher and Pollack refer to, causes a strain with their normal routines at home. Both genders are pushed to separate from their family and to be independent at an age that they are most vulnerable. Pipher and Pollack mention how these young adults feel that they have to be distant from the people they love in order to fit into the external environment in which they are surrounded majority of their days. For them they feel that this is another step to expressing independence and engage in the world as an adult, when it is the most crucial time in their lives to have support from their family. Pipher claims that the distance that girls start to initiate in is due a number of factors, each brought up by the forces they face in culture. Pollack on the other hand, states that one of the reasons that adolescent boys distance themselves is due to the pressures that they face in society as well as ones with their families. One of the primary reasons to the distance, as Pollack states, is due to the “gender straitjacket that they are overcome by in society as well as at home” (Pollack 61). Both authors suggest that a loving home and a positive family relationship is something that helps adolescents cope with the strains that they encounter, even though they might seem that they do not want to be a part of it.
Both authors describe the importance of family relationships in adolescents’ lives. Pipher makes it a point to describe how mother-daughter relationships are important in adolescent girls’ lives, just as Pollack suggests that a father’s support has a huge impact in adolescent boy’s lives. Even through her experience of being a mother and seeing a bundle of patients, Pipher claims “I was struck, as I often am, by how closely daughters observe their mothers and by how strongly they feel about their mothers behaviors” (Pipher 171).
Like Mary Pipher in her book, Reviving Ophelia, William Pollack in his book, Real Boys, describes the troubles that adolescents face in everyday life. They explore the various issues that these adolescents come across at school, with media, society, with their peers, and situations encountered with family. Both authors interpret situations from patients and research from which they have observed. They use this in order to make sense of what the newer generation of adolescents is experiencing and also to try to break the views that the media and society have on these young adults. In some cases both authors share similar views and in other cases, the authors seem to take different approaches to situations. While Pollack discusses the “Boy Code” that he claims is a major issue that adolescent boys face, Pipher uses Ophelia, a character from a Shakespearean play, as a symbolic figure to describe the troubles that adolescent girls encounter.
Society seems to be one of the biggest issues that Pipher and Pollack both state puts pressure on these children. The media depicts how an individual should look and how they should act. For girls, Pipher claims that the media influences them to be thin and compliant to what others want and society further pushes these girls to fit these views. Similarly, Pollack claims that the media also has a negative impact on the image of adolescent boys. The media portrays these boys to have an aggressive, masculine exterior and society adds to this image by disapproving any expression of feelings.
Pipher describes how television, magazines, the radio, and practically any sort of exposure including school seems to contribute to an image that these adolescents have, that they feel that they should fit into. Pollack describes this image as the “Boy Code”, for adolescent boys. He uses this to illustrate the strain that this code puts on these boys. The code represents an image that these boys are forced to follow of face the consequences of being an outcast from society. Although Pipher does not explicitly categorize an image of a girl into a code, she does take a similar approach to describing the image that girls are influenced to be in order to fit into society’s views. In her approach, she uses a symbolic figure to describe how troubled and voiceless adolescent girl feel in the face of peer pressure, society and the media. Pipher and Pollack describe the limits that girls and boys are limited to. Adolescent boys are suppose to mask their feelings, show masculinity, “be tough should demand respect from others” and also should not display characteristics that adolescent girls are imagined to portray, such as showing any type of emotion. Adolescent girls are expected to be a thin, seductive character that ends up being the very thing that endangers their physical and mental wellbeing. These views, as Pipher and Pollack claim, contribute to decreases in self-esteem and continue pushing adolescent into a confusing bind that leads some of them to serious states of depression.
Peer pressure is another aspect that Pipher and Pollack discuss contributes to the strain that girls and boys face through adolescents. Through her many cases, Pipher finds that most adolescent girls find the need to compare and compete with their peers on things such as physical appearance. The major issues that girls encounter are anorexia, bulimia, alcohol, drugs and sex. The friends that these adolescents grew up with and considered some of their closest friend change. Most girls, as Piper explains, have a hard time keeping a friendly relationship with boys as they did before adolescents. Pipher claims that “while peers can be satisfying and growth producing, they can also be growth destroying” (Pipher 68). She talks about how girls who are attentive to social pressure, who form obsessions about their weight, some girls revert to drinking and doing drugs to feel that they belong to a group, while others are pressured into engaging in sexual activity. Pollack on the other hand, states that boys are underestimated in terms of the intensity on the same pressures that girls are faced with. He claims that boys are shaped more by their peers than by their own individuality. To avoid being rejected by their peers, Pollack suggests, boys tend to disguise their emotions and express a “hardened” exterior, portraying themselves as a tough, masculine character. In a sense both authors describe adolescents being voiceless to their genuine selves in order to fit into their characteristic roles as influenced by their peers.
The confusion of how adolescents should behave and how they want to behave pushes them into confusion. This frustration, as Pipher and Pollack refer to, causes a strain with their normal routines at home. Both genders are pushed to separate from their family and to be independent at an age that they are most vulnerable. Pipher and Pollack mention how these young adults feel that they have to be distant from the people they love in order to fit into the external environment in which they are surrounded majority of their days. For them they feel that this is another step to expressing independence and engage in the world as an adult, when it is the most crucial time in their lives to have support from their family. Pipher claims that the distance that girls start to initiate in is due a number of factors, each brought up by the forces they face in culture. Pollack on the other hand, states that one of the reasons that adolescent boys distance themselves is due to the pressures that they face in society as well as ones with their families. One of the primary reasons to the distance, as Pollack states, is due to the “gender straitjacket that they are overcome by in society as well as at home” (Pollack 61). Both authors suggest that a loving home and a positive family relationship is something that helps adolescents cope with the strains that they encounter, even though they might seem that they do not want to be a part of it.
References
Pipher, Mary. Reviving Ophelia. New York: Ballantine Books , 1994.
Pollack, William. Real Boys. New York: Henry Holt, 1999.
