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Rosa E. Gomez
Anne S. Graham
SOC 1010-011 TR @ 11:30am
8 April 2014
Deviance: a Hindering Function in Life
If you were to analyze my family for deviant behavior, you would be left confused and perhaps
overwhelmed. My family consists of my mother, four sisters and four brothers. My father has never really
been in the picture, I hadnt seen him since I was eight. My mother left him because he had a drinking
and drug habit that was creating a bad environment for the family. I know he meant to do well, there were
good family moments. There were days where he would tend the garden and we would help to water the
plants. If something was ripe enough to eat, hed pickem and serve for us to eat. Like the watermelons or
carrots some times. Of course most of my childhood was spent living in farming communities around
Woodville, California. I was the second eldest of my siblings so mostly all my siblings were very young
when I was eight. They wouldnt have really understood the conflict between our father and mother.
When my mother left my father it was done abruptly, he didnt even know what happened. We just left
with only the clothes on our backs while my father was away. We ended up living at different homeless
shelters for about 12months and my mother has since alienated herself from her family and everyone she
knew. It made us feel isolated and without a sense of belonging. My mother has always been a good
traditional woman, she had been raised by a strict catholic mother and no father. She didnt have any
vices that were harmful to her health, she thought of alcohol and tobacco as lethal poisons and that she
would literally fall to her death upon ingesting them. She made us believe that they were a very bad sin
and that she disapproves. We were at a disadvantage in also that our mother didnt speak English or learn
to drive a vehicle, two important aspects of everyday living in the United States. Although my siblings
and I were born in the U.S. its almost as if we werent because we had barely enough to eat and we went
without many luxuries or it could be the fact that my mother had not learned to adapt or immerse herself
to this newer more advanced culture. She had her own culture and beliefs that she had instilled into us,
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one thing was that if we ever wanted fancy things in life we would have to work very hard to achieve
them. I m talking actual physical labor hard work not the work hard in school kind, perhaps in her time it
was physical hard work that got you things but know its really more about having an education. All of
this situation was making us confused and question our identity, are we Mexican or American or Mexican
American? Which?

Today with everyone all grown, still things aren't right. Most of my siblings live with my mother
except for 3 of us myself included. One brother is in the state prison and my older sister lives in Nebraska.
The ones who live with my mother dont help in any way to pay for anything. While she works as a
dishwasher for $8 hr.full time to pay for the rent and bills. For example Jules, one brother who is 22
doesnt work or go to school and doesnt have a car, in fact there is no car my mother doesnt drive. Yet
he complains about everyone else in the house for not doing anything right. I see this and I wonder why
he doesnt see his own flaws, the lack of self control especially the inner control component or like the
money he gets from selling his plasma to buy drugs, instead of using it for the home.I can see my mother
worry about being able to have enough money to pay for the bills or rent. Doesnt he see this? He blames
my mother for all his failures. He is wrong to think like that, my mother always made sure we were safe
had food and shelter. she did raise him and all of us right, he needs to understand that he needs to do for
himself now. Perhaps under the symbolic interactionism perspective it could be that he reacts according to
his interpretation of his life? we werent spoiled by any means but perhaps he resents my mother for not
giving him the fancy things as a child that he feels she still owes him? if this sounds abnormal then
maybe its some sort of disorder. A psychologist might think that he has a personality disorder like
narcissistic personality disorder I would say because he thinks he is deserves a better job than working
in a fast food restaurant, while he has no education past high school. He gets angry when things dont go
his way and blames my mother for it he thinks he is better and above her. Generally, he thinks he is the
the greatest person ever and anyone who meets him just loves him. He may be able to fool people but not
us in the family. We know he is never satisfied and we see no glimmer of him trying to better the family
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or himself. I dont think the labeling theory applies fully, because it not like a reputation you are
maintaining or trying to fit into. Unless its like if a person is a latino for example that means he not smart
and wont do well in school that that person believes it to be true or to not give oneself the opportunity to
even try. That is a very narrow minded way to look at things but that is not the case with Jules. We now
know that learning is a process that takes time and that is why people go to school to learn not to see how
much you already know compared to others. I believe that most of us are already born with a healthy
personality it is later in life or experiences that either alter it to be more or less deviant. Jules for example
he was a fun kid but with an attitude at a very young age. When he got angry he would ruin something an
object of the person he wasnt complacent with then it evolved to just breaking random things like
pushing the tv over with all his might I suppose it depended what was next to him at the moment. Then in
the teenage years it escalated to physical punching wrestling to the floor type of of quarrels with his
brothers over video games.
Maybe there is something in our DNA or the wiring in our brains that somehow gets diseased in
an otherwise healthy brain. Or are we reincarnations of several spirits that are fighting deep within our
conscience. For example when we have the angel on one side telling us to do good while the devil on the
other side is telling us to do bad, but what if there is more than them like a battle? whoever wins, wins the
mind and soul? or could there always be a war and we are left with a personality disorder.