Sociological imagination is an idea which fits an individual to the society as a whole. According to Mills (1959:170),”in order to analyse the effects it is important to see the world with a sociological state of mind and to see it as a whole.” This means is actually observing the society as a whole, in order to understand an individual’s behaviour.
Personal troubles are problems related to an individual and does not involve the whole society. For example, when someone commits suicide that is a family problem. While social issues are issues that relate to the whole society. For example the Marikana Massacre. The story of a family is about a polyandrous family. A women is married to two men and her community is against it. She is called a slut and her family does not support her. She then decide to go to another society, where she will be accepted.
The story on religion is about a women who spent eighteen years without braids or hair extension, because her church was against it. When she went to university she started wearing weaves and braiding, not forgetting that her religion was against it. So she had to remove all these things when she was about to go to her parents.
Now applying sociological imagination on the story about the family. The young lady has probably learnt in university about polyandry, so she did not see a reason to divorce or cheat on his husband when she found new love. She decided to have a second marriage. Her society was against the whole thing. They were swearing at her pressurising her to leave the relationship. Even her family did not support her. She then decided to leave and go to society where she will be accepted.
This story can be classified to a personal issue, since the couple were the only ones to be affected by the results of their marriage. Even though the whole society was against it, only the couple were force to leave.
This story reveals that if our society is against something, it will be difficult for an individual to continue leaving in that society still doing the same thing. An individual will be forced to stop that particular thing, or they will be forced to leave the society. Meaning that not all types of families are accepted in a society.
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