Macbeth #2

Peer pressure happens frequently in our society. We generally hear of it when it's something bad, like another kid tried drugs or alcohol for the first time because his best friend called him a girl. Peer pressure has a negative connotation; people just think that if your friends are going to tell you to do something, it's going to be something that you could get in trouble for. However, this is not always the case. Sometimes peer pressure can actually be good.

In my life, while I have been pressured into things that I shouldn't have done, I've also been pressured into things that were good for me. For example, even coming to this school. When I first started the SOS class, I didn't think I could do it. I had decided that I was just going to go to my home school, even though I really didn't want to go there. My mom knew this and basically did what Macbeth's wife did to him, but in a nicer manner. Still, the message was there, that I was a wuss for backing out of something that I was good at and that I shouldn't end up hurting myself just because I was scared I'd fail.

Literature in general is based on society. Without people being influenced by what they see in their daily life, I'm sure a lot of great novels would not exist. Shakespeare's work, including Macbeth, is a very good example. Macbeth's wife calls him out when he decides to not follow through with the plan. She insults his manhood and uses her words to bring him down a few levels, maybe to her level, so he'd do what she wants him to do. This shows that people have been using peer pressure for a very long time, and that even then, when it happened it was generally negative.