Examples Of Social Standards In The Late 1800s

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Social Standards of the Late 1800s to Mid 1900s compared to Today told through Literature from English 11 Throughout the course of English 11, social standards from a different time period were presented, and those social standards from the late eighteen hundreds to mid nineteen hundreds are very different and better than todays. This is evident and can be seen throughout literature we read this year, from Poets of the 1800s to The Harlem Renaissance, to the novel Until They Bring the Streetcars Back. Before comparing social standards of today with centuries past, its important to have a clear definition of a social standard. Multiple sources describe a social standard as “informal understandings that govern the behavior of members …show more content…

When peering into one of her most well known poems, To My Dear and Loving Husband, Bradstreet writes “My love is such that rivers cannot quench, Nor ought, but love from thee, give recompense.” Bradstreet explains how much she loves her husband, that he is everything to her, and hopefully she is everything to him, that even though they have their differences, they love each other and make one another happy. This contrasts with today's social norms, or personal preferences. Generally, people of today have a hard time enjoying ones company when said company has different beliefs or ideologies. Politics are very popular in today's society, and have created a tension between members of society. Bradstreet explains that opinions aren’t everything, that what truly matters is their character, their personality, not their opinions. Not only do people of today's society struggle to acknowledge and accept differing ideas, but they also have trouble with letting go of materialistic things. In today's culture, materialistic items mean everything, from your social status to how happy you are. Bradstreet explains through Here Follow Some Verses Upon the Burning of Our House, July 10th, 1666, that materialistic are not everything, there is more to life than what you own or don’t own. “Yet by His gift is made thine own; there’s wealth enough, I need no more, …show more content…

A person shouldn’t measure their success based on what they own, but based on their accomplishments. Those who never truly succeed, take pride in what they own, rather than what they’ve done. Emily Dickinson wrote in Success is Counted Sweetest, “Success is counted sweetest, by those who never succeed.” In this poem Dickinson describes what success really is, and those why are proud of their success, never truly achieved it. Today, success doesn’t matter at all. Everyone is equally deserving, everyone should strive to be the same (in terms of economic class), instead of being successful, you should help someone else become successful.