Conflict with Beliefs

How do the actions of others impact our beliefs?

  Our beliefs enforce our identity as an individual, individuals can be influenced negatively or positively by the actions of others.  When negative, others can be a threat to those underlying beliefs and values we have within us.  If we are faced with adversity and hardship, due to the actions of others, we are influenced to change and adapt to the situation for our survival.  When positive, others can inspire and reinforce, even change for the better, our beliefs.   The actions of others might have different intentions, but we are able to determine the result of those actions with strong beliefs. For young people, who are highly influenced and changeable, others can have a significant impact – positive or negative, depending on the circumstances – on their beliefs because each experience in a young person’s life, each person, can bring about great growth or great ruin.  

When a young individual has a mentor who coaches and supports their growth and development, that mentor can positively inspire the youth’s values and beliefs in their future potential, resulting in greater success than that youth would have achieved without their mentor.  Within the film Finding Forrester, we follow the journey of 16-year-old gifted teen, Jamal Wallace, who grew up in the Bronx and was considered “your average teenager” by his family and his peers, yet that was an understatement. He was truly a gifted academic and writer who hid his talent and ability from his peers and family until testing proved his genius, and he was approached by a prestigious school that saw his potential with the results of his test marks. With his basketball skills and his academic talent, the private school gave him a chance to head to a different path. With this journey, he had secretly met William Forrester a great writer that isolated himself from the world. With them becoming friends Jamal was able to enforce his belief of writing thanks to William for mentoring him in improving his writing. Later in the film, Jamal was faced with a difficult decision to make whether he pursue his basketball or academics. He had gotten in this predicament during the championship game where he was being blackmailed to win the game and able to continue on with his journey. He had made the decision of being able to continue on with his passion of writing and was able to show his true desire. His beliefs were influenced and tested representing the strengthening of his belief by William Forrester. This demonstrates the idea that when an individual shares the same passion as you, they are able to influence your beliefs by strengthening them resulting in a more prominent belief that is evident within our life.

Some youth are not so lucky as to find a mentor to support, inspire and coach them in their beliefs and success.  When young people experience abuse and oppression, their beliefs can be lost as their focus is on primal, selfish survival – not ideals and values. With the novel Night, we are exposed to the journey of Elie Wiesel and his experiences within the concentration camp during the Holocaust. Elie at a young age was impacted by the result and actions in the camp. The inhumane acts that went on in the camp stripped of him of his identity and values during this experience because of the Nazi’s. From once being a very religious individual at such a young age to not even believing in religion nor in humanity at the end of the novel. We learn how Elie was impacted by the cruelty and the death that happened in the camp such as at the beginning of the novel when he was first brought to Auschwitz. When he saw the babies and children being thrown into the fire and being impacted by that traumatic experience and thinking about suicide at that point. In the middle of the novel we were exposed to the idea of his beliefs were influenced by the actions of others when he began to question God and whether God would allow such a thing to happen, this had created an uproar for him because of him later falling victim to his identity and life being taken away by the experiences, represented by the end of the novel when he looked into the mirror and saw a dead corpse. This demonstrates how any individual can be impacted negatively and fall victim to adversity and hardships that we face.

When at a loss, and falling into confusion and uncertainty with oneself, others can help be the light in the darkness – helping us to reinforce our beliefs.  Within my experiences, I have been influenced by the actions of others when I had begun to question my own beliefs. With this experience I was impacted by my mom because she had solved the predicament that I was in. During this questioning of my belief, I  fell into a small depression with God and my destiny. My mother had learned of what I was going through and told me of her issue and how she was able to overcome a similar situation. She had enacted my belief in my religion and my future. She told me of how we often have conflicts with ourselves and with others only to discover a new belief or be able to strengthen our current belief. My mother has impacted my life for the greater of my growth and reinforced in me a sense of humanity, respect, and compassion – she is most influential and important in my life.

   Beliefs are something that can change over a period of time depending on our situations. We are often influenced in a positive way or negative depending on our circumstances and how others are there to help us, to guide us, or to destroy us. Our beliefs demonstrate our character and identity, when we are faced with hardship and adversity this is when our beliefs come into conflict with such situations, and based on our influences and state-of-mind the results may differ.