The sociological Imagination Essay

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Miriam Gomez
September 28, 2013

The Sociological Imagination

The sociological imagination is the ability to see the relationship between individual experiences and the larger society. C. Wright, Mills wrote an essay called “The Sociological Imagination” which had to do with how personal troubles can also tie into being societies problem. Other individuals didn’t realize that those troubles they were going threw were caused by society and this was called “The Sociological Imagination”. “With this insight the individual sees that others also share these troubles, and that the solution is not to struggle individually, but to join forces with those who also share his experiences” (Mills, 1959, p.8). This quote is stating that individuals realized that other individuals were also going threw their same private issue and they believed in working in groups to help fix the trouble instead of solving it individually. I believe in what C. Wright, Mills is saying in his essay on how individuals shouldn’t struggle individually to solve their troubles how they should join in with others who also share the same experiences. This is a way to address the problem called “ The public issues of social structure” (Mills, 1959, p.8). My thoughts are that problems that individuals are going through can most definitely be linked to general public issue, others may be going through the same problem as well. For example, a personal issue can be as simple as an individual being considered “thick/fat” because in the 20th century being thin is the sexy look, see how the personal issue now ties into societies issue on how individuals are suppose to look. Even being unemployed can be as little as being a private issue but it can become a public issue because of the economic meltdown. I agree that we need to band together to help solve our issues because more than one person can be going through the same experience and with the help of more people progress can be done. Even though the United States is a capitalist where as they keep the poor, poor and make the rich richer I think this is why individuals don’t seek for others help. I do
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