Sociological Analysis of the Elderly through an Interview

However, some people chose not to marry and get married. However, the most significant one is mostly three stages of life: that is birth, marriage, the old age and eventually death. This is often regarded as the full circle of life. Old age is one of the most important sections of any human being. It is during the old age that one get to reflect on his/her life and get the best of his/her life that he/she had to get to live in the younger years. Length of the interview that I conducted on the 70 years old woman is eighteen minutes long. I asked her many questions that were meant to get her attention on several issues that are directly related to her life, in the past and the contemporary society that is her place in the modern society.

Some of the questions that I asked include: • Her age • Her place of birth • The memorable things that she used to engage in her younger age • How the society views and takes her in the modern world • The cultural values • Her most memorable events • Her education level • How she visualize life and how it was in the past • The most memorable moments in her life • Any regrets 2. Profile of the Interviewee The interviewee is a 70 years old woman who grew up in India. She is from Punjab India but currently resides in Canada. She was born in 1947 and was born into a community with a lot of elderly people. In her family, she had a large significant older adult. Growing up, she always valued the elderly people with respect.

The same, according to the subject is still very paramount and they are highly valued people. When she was young, she used to value the elderly people with respect, and they apply to respect her in return. Things have changed significantly. According to the woman, she feels she has had a fulfilling childhood and her 70 years have been spent with goodness. Sikhism is the belief that ties her life. She now gives back to the society through socializing with the old people. The Role of Social Context Several macro-sociological factors are seen in the interview between the old woman and me. Another macro social context witnessed in this scenario is the importance of ceremonies. Ceremonies formed the basis of the woman’s life in her young age.

Several ceremonies formed the basis of her life. One of the essential ceremonies she vividly recreates is the weddings and some other religious ceremonies that she has been attending. Up to her age now, she still fancies weddings and she is longing for a wedding ceremony for her grandchild. She has lived her life to the fullest and had no regrets at all. Having being married and having children and grandchildren, she has fulfilled her purpose in life. Various experiences are drawn from the interview, and she has shared much vital information that can guide how she has been able to achieve and experience. Looking at the history of the old people is the best avenue of understanding the sociological concepts of the old people in the society and drawing their general experiences in life.

Jane is a woman in her mid-sixties. A co-founder of a community outreach programme impacting the lives of minority groups positively in terms of offering assistance on matters; substance abuse, access to the justice system and providing free food to disadvantaged members of the community. Jane is an extraordinary woman who exhibits an unusually high amount of charisma and an eagerness to share stories about her life. She sparks curiosity in the manner she is candid and introspective about her life. This study will explore the development of Jane’s identity in the context of her life events and societal setting. The semi-structured interview was used during this interview. Semi-structured Interviews offers a balance between the flexibility of an open-ended interview and the focus of a structured ethnographic survey.

This technique guides the researcher through the interview process. Whereas it maintains the same level of structure, it accords the researcher the opportunity to probe the respondent for additional details. This interview method offers flexibility to the researcher that it offers a great deal of flexibility for you as a researcher. The community outreach programme has received accolades due to its positive contribution to the community over the past two decades. I first met Jane in her offices following a call I had made to her office scheduling for an interview. Jane is a 65-year-old mother of 4 married to Mark Conrad a retired human right lawyer. From an African ethnicity, Jane is married to Mark who is white and together they live in at a middle-class townhouse in New York.

To date, they both volunteer full time at the outreach center. The school was never a walk in the park for me, said Jane. I had to juggle between school and fending for the family hence I consistently had below-average grades. I couldn’t get to college as I did not have a college fund, neither could she get a scholarship because my grades were not above average”. It was a frustrating journey for her being in school. Jane did not think much about the importance for education, she just dreamt about owning a coffee shop outside the bronks, because, living in a black ghetto that is as far as her vision took her. Though not a ghetto setting, 9th street was largely a mix of black and Hispanic community and gangs ran the streets.

Jarome always stopped by the coffee shop for his daily dose of coffee and that is when he met Mark. Jarome, though a leader of the gang was passionate about obtaining justice for the minority groups who were denied Justice. A modern day, Robin Hood- such Irony! From then Mark embraced that noble calling as a legal representative to the community’s underprivileged upon which I joined him in providing bread and coffee for whoever came seeking for assistance in a small office Jerome had hire for Mark. Jane had been an Atheist until she met Mark through whom she got to that eureka moment and she joined him at the local Catholic Church. Her economic class is one of low-income class, Jane is an atheist before meeting Mark, she does not believe in the existence of God.

The Justice system does not serve blacks in the community to an extent that she has to hire vigilantes to protect the family business. Coming from the black ethnicity, racisms was pronounced and blacks were discriminated against. The level of education was the bare minimum whereby she had no interest in pursuing higher education because a platform had not been accorded to her impressing the importance of education. According to (Blau, 1977), social structures are the systematized set of social relationships, patterns, and institutions making up a society. Theoretical Analysis According to Burrell (2017), sociologists analyze social phenomena at different levels and from different perspectives. As stated by Dahrendorf (1959), in sociology, the social conflict theory is a macro-oriented paradigm which perceives the society as an arena marred with conflicts due to societal inequalities This theory explains that the structure of the society is such that very few individuals benefit at the expense of the wider society due to factors such as sex, race, class, and age which bring about the disparity hence inequality.