People’s behavior is largely determined by forces not of their own making.

People’s behavior is largely determined by forces not of their own making.

While I admit that people can hardly decide their own behavior and decision, individuals have the rights to pursue their own choices.

On one hand, our personality is established by the surroundings. We are affected by the family we born, communities we live, schools we attend, religions we believe and even the national ideology. In these big environment, we construction different lives within a relatively certain atmosphere. To be more specific, the culture, including books, movies and even music, constantly influence the development of important values in our lives. Nevertheless, we will think we have inborn personality and totally self-making decisions instead of many influential factors. To be frank, it is society mould people’s behavior for most circumstance, rather than people’s independent consciousness.

On the other hand, when we choose to do something or make decision for an actual event, many outer forces will be introduced. For one part, we have families, friends, teachers and colleagues which we will ask suggestions. Also, we will take gender difference, religious faith and family tradition into consideration. For instance, the main character of The Moon and Sixpense is so enthusiastic about painting that he feel himself living inauthentically. Even though he have extraordinary talent for drawing, he choose to become a banker with stable income and marry a beautiful wife before he decide to abandon them. Not all of us have the courage like this character to escape the regulation of society, we just let the water flow and continue our lives.

Here, something calls for more importance is people should go after what they want, try to make their own choices. A famous saying, by Romain Rolland, that there is only one heroism in the world: to see the world as it is and to love it. We need to establish our own values, learn to make independent judgement and think critically. In this case, we can avoid to be affected by forces in the future.