It is Our Responsibility to do What?

            What is our responsibility? Faced with this question last class I am torn between numerous worlds and communities in which I feel obligated to be responsible for others and the success of our group. This question is too familiar as it is an underlying theme to numerous essays and applications that we feel obligated to respond and answer to over the course of our high school career. I wish I could say that it is the responsibility of a teenager to stand up for her beliefs. But by saying that, I feel as if I am cutting myself short and simply classifying myself as a teenager whereas if I say: it is the responsibility of a Harpeth Hall student to stand up for those who are oppressed and speak with conviction, I am only labeling myself as a Harpeth Hall student, excluding personality.

            If we let society and outside pressures dictate who we are, than for whom are we responsible? In Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Jake, too, finds himself stuck under societal pressures to hide his wounds. But rather than taking responsibility for his actions, he does not act much and simply observes in fear that if he acts, he will not get what he desires: masculinity and Brett. For Brett it is the responsibility of coping that builds her character as one who is promiscuous yet secretly vulnerable. Jake’s character is relatively open-ended without much depth as we only see his thoughts and opinions that are never voiced, but Brett’s character is three-dimensional through her choice to do as she pleases and disregard societal expectations. Through these characters, the reader has the opportunity to understand how many reply to outside pressures while some remain individuals. It is the responsibility of a teenager, a Harpeth Hall student, an athlete, an actress, a believer, a ginger, a girl to let the young adult have her voice be heard through power and conviction and accepted with tolerance and respect.