The Sudanese Youth - Societal Expectations

The Trials of the Sudanese youth are beyond comparison. To be displaced across hundreds of miles, enduring countless perils, and still maintain one's humanity is an incredible feat. Then, after this entire ordeal to move to America and try to begin a new life in order to provide for a impoverished family, takes an iron will.

Societal expectations govern nearly all of our actions, and are the core of every society. These expectations vary from society to society, which can cause conflict  when one must enter another society. This is demonstrated in the fullest sense for the Sundanese boys. The refugee village that these boys came from was incredibly tight knit, with everyone being familiar with each other. This village also was incredibly impoverished, leading to a debilitating lack of resources. 

When these boys were then relocated to America, they encountered an entirely different belief system. Americans are very private, then segregate themselves with single family homes with individual bedrooms. This is nearly the opposite of the Sudanese village, in which, as one of the boy's sister says, 'the group's troubles are your troubles'. Another difference in lifestyles is in our gathering of resources, for in the refugee village the people had little opportunity to make money, or gain a leg up, due to food rationing.n In the United States these youth found that one must work hard and "market" themselves in order to get ahead in our economic system.