Smart kids, theater kids, football players, band kids, lax bros, skaters. High school students like their labels. Every teenager in the entire building has been categorized. Where they "belong" dictates what they wear, who they hang out with, what they do on the weekends, and even where they tend to eat lunch. Who decided that they fit in to this category? More importantly, how did this become their identity? When examined from an outsiders perspective, it is logical why kids are labeled in this way. Almost every single one has altered his or her lifestyle, personality, and manner in some way to fit the mold of their respective congregation. The students who do not fit into a group, or rather, do not conform to a specific classification, are perceived as strange.Therefore, societal pressures "force" them to manipulate their being which leads to an authored perception. This is one prevalent example of how society has altered individual's perceptions of themselves and their peers.
Although difficult because there is no society present in the post-apocalyptic world of Cormac McCarthy's, The Road, one can determine that the protagonist's surroundings greatly influence their outward and inward perceptions of character. For example, the self deprecating attitude of The Man is a consequence of his morose setting. He tends to think of himself as an unbecoming father, unworthy of his child's love. As a result, he treats all those he encounters with suspicion, as if they exist for the sole purpose of extinguishing his and his son's lives. Interestingly enough, the child's perceptions were manipulated in the exact opposite way. He treats every traveler with compassion and empathy, even those who intend to harm him. It is difficult to discern what the child thinks of himself, but it is logical to assume that it is also in contradiction with his father's viewpoint. At one point in the novel, a thief steals the protagonist's cart, and both character's react in a way that exemplifies their outward perceptions of others. The father, being cautious and pessimistic, tracks the thief down, threatens him at gun point, and steals his clothes and shoes as a consequence for his actions. The child on the other hand, pleads with his father to return the thief's belongings to him.
Werewolves in their Youth, a short story written by Michael Chabon, is centered around the idea that society is negatively influencing children's inwardly perceptions. The main character, Paul, is described as fat child who "smells strangely like tomato soup." This description of him, especially the part regarding his pungent odor, is largely falsified. However, Paul begins to believe it. Later on in the story, as Paul's character is being developed, the reader learns that every diffident thought that crosses his young mind was spawned by those who made up information to make fun of him. The other central character in the story is a boy named Timothy, who is characterized as an outcast. Timothy is a very imaginative child, and gets so caught up in his games, his characters, that they consume his life. He comes to believe that he actually is a werewolf, a robot, or some other fictitious creature of myth. He does this so much, that it comes to be his true personality. Unlike Paul, who's persona is shaped negatively by the molding hands of society, Timothy is impervious to them, much like he is unaffected by the cold.
