Saints and Roughnecks

Saints and Roughnecks is primarily a story about labeling and the affects of labeling. This story shows how people focus more on how to label a person (whether it be financially, ethnically, or socially), rather than the people themselves. With labeling being so crucial in society people act in ways just to fit a label rather than just being who they are. A lot of what we do, as well as the saints and roughnecks, is based on the paths already laid out for us to take. For example, what kids at wealthy high schools do after high school is different from people in lower class high schools. This is not only because of money, but also because of what society teaches this kids what they should be doing with their lives. I do see this a lot of labeling in my own high school. Not only between students, but also teachers judgments on students. There are a few students who achieve very high grades in school and are involved in different things in school that make them appear to be role models. However, they a lot of the times are doing worse things than a lot of other students I know. Since they dress nice to school and put on a alternate personality in school they don't get accused of cheating on tests or doing other troublesome things. However, people who dress not as nice or don't use proper grammar are immediately written off and are a lot more likely to get in trouble. It is frustrating at times to see this happen, so we have to just keep trying to break these social assumptions.