Sociology 101

The Promise Summary

Sean White

In C. Wright Mills The Promise Chapter one, Mills discusses how people frequently feel trapped in their everyday lives and the interconnections between the individual, society and the history in which they are a part of. Mills explains the intricate connections between society, geography and the history in which the individuals lives and how they are all inter connected. Mills formulates a theory/argument called the Sociological Imagination that explains how everything is connected and being able to see the connections will open your eyes to a whole new world where you no longer feel trapped. The Sociological Imagination is a way of linking a persons experiences with their geography, history and the society. Mills describes how changes in society such as industrialization, rise and fall of classes, and war are all connected to the role the person will play in society. During wars ordinary people such as teachers and salesman become rocket launchers and radar operators, when classes fall the citizens become unemployed, when a nation is industrialized the poor become the workers in factories, feudal lords become the business men of the society. The first lesson in adopting the Sociological imagination is becoming aware of your position in the society and time in which you live, by doing this you can look at other individuals and better understand your own life and see where it can take you. Mills talks about how this can be a magnificent and terrible lesson all at the same time since people often try to think of themselves as independent from others and are in charge of their own fates but at the same time it can be a magnificent experience because you will have the ability to see where youre going and how things affect you such as your place in history and your geography, things that you did not realize had such an impact on your life, also that you are not the only individual suffering from the troubles you are facing, that there are many individuals just like yourself who are going through the same troubles. That every person has an impact on shaping the society in which they

Sociology 101

The Promise Summary

Sean White

are a part of. Mills also goes on to discusses personal troubles of milieu and the public issues of social structure. Troubles are problems the individual faces and only go as far as the individuals relations and social life. Issues are problems which effect the society as a whole and are public matters and involve problems in institutional arrangements, such as war, marriage and large cities. In short the Sociological imagination is a way of find ones place a purpose in society and the history they are in, once you have a sociological imagination you will realize your problems are shared and you will be able to find your place in history and see where your life is headed. Mills argument for the sociological imagination is definitely relevant today and will always be relevant because it gives people the opportunity to look at their own place in history from a different perspective .It gives people the chance to step back and look at the big picture of how things work and what their role in that period of time is, and how when large scale events happen what the effects on them will be. It also gives people who feel trapped to break free off their chains because once you find you place in a society you can always change it by working harder or going to school and enter a different milieu and have different impacts on society. One major strength of the sociological imagination is that it gives the individual the ability to understand his or her place in a society and how all aspects of that society are inter connected. This gives a person a perspective on their place an role in a society so they dont feel trapped by all the problems they face since they can see that other people face the same problems that they face day to day. One weakness of the sociological imagination is that some people might see their place or role they play in a society and be upset on how small of a role they actually play. Also some people might see this and give up on trying to better themselves because they think that they will not be able to escape there current role they play in a society.

Sociology 101

The Promise Summary

Sean White