The Influence of Actions

What is your opinion of the idea that our beliefs are influenced by the actions of others?

Friends and family shape the way an individual sees the world by influencing their beliefs, showing them a new perspective of how the world can be viewed. In the film, “A River Runs Through It,” by Norman Maclean, a character, also named Norman Maclean, is shown to have beliefs that were influenced greatly by his father, Reverend John Norman Maclean, and his brother, Paul Maclean. Norman’s childhood was filled with innocence. A family consisting of a father, mother, brother, and himself.

As an individual starts out their life, their perspective and personality is based off of a parents’ ideals. Norman was homeschooled by his father, mainly working on writing. Whenever Norman made mistakes and/or wasn’t up to the standards set by his father, the father would correct his mistakes using a red pen and make Norman rewrite his work until it was perfected. This affected him as he grew up, shown in the scene where Norman comes back after studying abroad and begins engaging in a conversation with his father in his study. As the conversation goes on, Norman and the father talk about the possibilities of careers that Norman can have as a permanent job. Norman had a dream of having a specific career but it was immediately crushed after seeing his father holding a red pen, symbolizing disappointment, as Norman was mentioning it. Because of this, Norman then changes his career idea to being a teacher. He chooses to do this because his belief, as he grew up, was to always meet his father’s standards.

Another area where the idea of actions causing influence onto your beliefs is through Paul’s eyes. His belief as he grew up was that he will be in the spotlight, the center of attention, well-known, and be famous. The main idea was him being the best. His beliefs begin to shift around and change when Norman comes back from abroad. Paul begins having jealousy towards his brother because of the attention Norman is getting for becoming a Professor. During the scene of the community get together, Norman is shown around by his mother, gloating about his accomplishments to the other ladies in the community. Paul is then shown around the end of the scene, just arriving, getting along with everyone, including their parents, but not speaking to Norman as he leaves.  Since this was the case, Paul then tries to do more things involved with the community to get him more recognized to counter Norman’s new uprising popularity. Because Paul felt like it was a competition and needed to get to the top, he continued stressing out more behind the scenes and is exposed later on through his addiction to alcohol.

My personal experience with this is more of when a belief was put upon me by another individual until I broke out of the idea, so I could change. As a young child, I was always restricted from going outside alone; Whether it’d be a short walk to the river, or just going to the nearby playground to meet up a neighborhood friend; It was never an option to go out without one of my parents or sister accompanying me there. Growing up, my belief that rose from that continued to twist and turn my ideas of not being allowed to go out without one of them until recently. Not that long ago, I went out for the first time, alone, to explore the city, to venture alone for once since I didn’t exactly have friends or anyone to accompany myself, but it felt more fulfilling without others. It’s not a small thing that not many people consider but this small act really helped me in being just that little more free, both externally and internally, instead of staying trapped in the dark abyss that limited everything I was to see and experience. This changed my belief into doing more than I thought I ever could, the little more I could do without plunging into a state of distorted fear and panic due to my personal fear of consequences.

Altogether, the three perspectives listed here connect together because all of them had an experience in a change of beliefs caused by others. Norman’s belief being influenced by his father’s, Paul’s belief broken down because of Norman, and the belief that was put upon me until I changed it. One day, each and every individual, whether it was in the past, present, or future, will inevitably experience another individual’s influence changing their perspective. All in all, this shows how the influence of others, what they say and what they do, can greatly impact how an individual lives their life.