The Devil's playground certain brings a number of intense of deep rooted issues to light. At it's core it is a story of rebellion, of choosing your path in life. Of course, in today's society when a young adult rebels it is only after years of learning of learning the rules and customs of todays society, and in most cases because the societal folkways and mores are so deeply set we only possess the ability to drift so far. On the other hand the Amish do not know much of what "English" society as OK, or not OK. They seem to believe that by doing a trial run of being "English" at 16 they must drink every night, do drugs (pretty extreme drugs in some case) and possibly even leave home. Of course, they would most likely know little of alcoholism, drug overdoses, and addiction. One may question why it is the retention rate is so high. It is not because more people like Amish society than "English" society, rather it is because they do not truly experience "English" society. They experience a hyped-up version of "English" society that is sure to be exhausting to anyone, and so eventually why they see being Amish as the only alternative, they eventually go back to the church.
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That is a keen observation, Adam: the 'english world' that the kids experience is, at the very least, a distorted picture. Even if it weren't more extreme, consider the fact that they end up spending most/ all of their time with other rumspringing kids. It's hard to say, but the woman who had broken from the Amish after rumspringa seemed to be moving on a path toward happiness -- and her life was something most of us would consider pretty average for the english world.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I read this post, as it addresses what is probably the biggest shortcoming of rumspringa, from the individual's perspective at least. It is unfortunate more of them do not see the "English world," because a lot of the people who return to the Amish lifestyle may have been better off producing movies or being a flight attendant.
ReplyDeleteAdam brings up a good point that during rumspringa Amish teens experience a hyped-up version of English culture. This is/was something that I have been thinking about while watching the film and afterwards. The incredible amount of drug and alcohol consumption isn't something that I would consider standard for most English teens. If rumspringa included other aspects of English culture, like more education and less of an emphasis on drugs and alcohol, I wonder if it is possible that the number of teens that return to the Amish church could be lower.
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