Discussion

Introduction

One of your exam questions asks you to discuss the consequences of many young people’s need to go out in the world. In your discussion, you should take your starting point in James Rebanks’ preface to The Shepherd’s Life: A Tale of the Lake District. In the text, Rebanks talks about people who go out in the world in the following extract:

Later I would understand that modern industrial communities are obsessed with the importance of ‘going somewhere’ and ‘doing something with your life’. The implication is an idea I have come to hate, that staying local and doing physical work doesn’t count for much. (ll. 37-40)

Here, Rebanks implies that the perspective of modern communities is faulty, as it divides people into two categories: those who ...