Society And Culture: Fate Of The Cockroach

Student’s Name Professor’s Name Course Date Society and Culture The play “Fate of the Cockroach” highlights some of the cultural aspects of society that influence our existence and survival. One of the dimensions that the play covers with regard to culture and society is how culture defines a society. The author shows the differences between ants and cockroaches by pointing out to their collectivistic and individualistic cultures respectively. The other dimension covered in the play relates to gender equality and gender roles within a given society. Throughout the play, the author is also able to illustrate the conflict between the sexes from the cockroach and human species. He illustrates how the males in the play feel undermined by the females at a time when gender roles and gender inequalities are being challenged in modern society. In addition, the play also touches on the reversal of gender roles and the conflict that stems from this reversal. The play presents two different cultures that can define a society. The first is the culture of individualism that has become the way of life for the cockroaches. When king cockroach is explaining to the queen how it is he became the king, he reveals the individualistic culture of the cockroach society by noting that the other cockroaches agreed to let him become king as long as they were not tied to him. The king states that the other cockroaches “…left me, each going his separate way for his daily bread” (Alcodray, 5). Even among humans, some societies have embraced the culture of individualism where everyone fends for themselves. The culture adopted by a group of people is what defines their society. The second culture identified in the play is the culture of collectivism. The ants’ society has adopted a culture of collectivism because they do everything together, in armies. This is what has enabled the ants to stay ahead of cockroaches for so long. In his own words, while describing the ants, king cockroach posits that “…We are not like those small creatures who gather together at the slightest of pretexts” (3). The differences in culture between ants and cockroaches also reflect on how culture influences social support among members of a given society. In the case of cockroaches, they are unable to seek out the amount of social support they need in the face of calamity because they lack the element of interdependence on each other. However...