critique

I think this book was very succesful. It helped me learn a lot about cults and deep into the thoughts of people like that. In sociology terms any other kind of group wouldnt have worked with it because no one was like a famiy or best friends because there was no trust everyone would spy on each other and snitch on what each had done everyday. it couldnt have been a dyad or triad because it had over a thousand membersThey didn't have socieomotional leadership becas jim jones made very poor decisions about everything. it couldn't be an aggregate because opeople came there because they felt empty and lonely and they stayed top feel loved by jim jones. they were definetly were a social group, had group dynamics, and group think because they al did share the same beliefs and vales, they all interacted with each other on a daily basis, they overlookked all the major problems that were going on with the church and had very poor judgement on what was happening with there lifes. They made extremelt bad choices for themselves by commiting the mass suicide. It was unrealistic to me how she didn't see the signs when he would rape her and enjoy it after he said sex was forrbidden. the author helped me understand a whole lot because, it showed me exactly what happens in cults and religious group[s like that.

Commentary

This book was an auto biography of a persons life that was goin down hill. All her life she was surrounded by secoundary groups and ever had anything close knit. Her family never understood her she had no one to help socialize her. This book opens my eyes to the crazy ideas of cults and what really happens in them. they all pretty much lost slf control over themselves. pretty much couldnt think for themselves anymore. They Forgot eveything they were ever taught and pushed away everyone close to them who cared about them. Sociology helped me understand this book becuase when we were learnng abouyt families and groups it showns how cults are apart of group-polarization and task leadership. they're apart of group-polarization because they always made drastic decisions like no sex between married couples and all men are homo sexuals and movin 1,000 people into a jungle becuas they feared a holocaust. they have task leadreship because jim jones had many goals nade up everyday. They all had to come up with a certain amount of mone for him, everyone wworked in the feilds and had to complete a certain job in the middle of the jonestown jungle, and many more. im jones had made himself go crazy. The author was trying to help people see the dangeres and signs of cults and what can happen to you and how it will impact your life.

seductive poison by debroah layton (ANALYSIS)

My book was about the life of a survivor of the jim jones cult. She grew up in a manipulative enviornment all her life her families kept secrets from each other they she had no sense of direction. As a teen she was very rebellious she moved around to different families cause he parents didn't know what to do with her. They were the average nuclerar family except she stood out for the wrong reasons. Debroah had two sisters and one brother when they all left out in to the world she no longer had a support system. So her mom had no choice but to send her off to london to go to a private schhol and live with her aunt. She did very well there but on her vacation home from school she experienced something for the worst she mety Jim Jones. Her brother Larry was married to his wife carolyn and they had become very involved with the church called the peoples disciples, im jones was the pastor. When she went visit her brother and the church it made her feel accepted and loved so she decided to join the chuch. Things went down from there. She had devoted her life to the church like everyone else. Jim jones was a manipulative lier asnd abuser. He filled everyones mind with false ideas. Some of the most bogus ideas were that all men are homosexuals except him , he was the reincarnation of jesus and lenin, sex is forrbidden even between married couples, and if you ever left his church bad horrible things will happen to you and you'll be reincarnated as an amoeba. everyone including her and her mother and sisters surrendered all there belongings including their homes, cars, valueble things, and all the money they had to his church. Her mother was so dedicated that she diovorced her dad and was so stressed and worked she developed cancer. He performed false miracles like making people throw up cancers and turning water to wine which were lies. Jim joones began to rape many of the women out of his congregation of almost 1,000 people. he would make them believe they did something wrong thats why it was happening to them. There would be all night meetings where people would get beaten and cursed for using there minds. Debroah became one of his confidants along with his wife Maria and carolyn and she went along with them to many different european countries to deposit millions of dollares in banks. Jim jones became very paranoid and nervous because he was afraid the government would find out what he was doing but he was telling his congregation that the FBI was after them and they wanted to put all the colored people in america in concentraiton camps(most of his members were black). he also claimed the was going to be a huge nuclear bomb that would destroy everyone. So he had about 900 of his memebrs moved to Guyana, a small country in South America. Debroah began top realize his lies when she got there. Everyon lived like slaves there and were starving. No one had any ideas things would be like that they were told that it would be a utopia a socity without racism and problems. people worked in the hot jungle from 6am to 8am. the had rice soup and bread everyday. they only ate good when goverment officials from Guyana came to check up on the them. it was strange for Deborah why they lived that way because there were millions dollares all over for them .
When i got to this point i realized that all those people who were in that church alot were missing something in there life . i can describe them in using the conflict theory it was them competing against the world being manipulated. Debroah new she had to escape when she saw people were being held there by there will there were gunman surrounding the place. they had white nights almost every night. jim would set off the sirens and had everyone believe people were attacking them and were trying to kill them all. so he would have everyone drink some juice pretending it had poison in it and everyone would commit a mass suicide. she became to feel scared that one day it would be real so she escaped on a mission for jim by luck.
When she got back to the states she informed the government on whats going on and congressman leo ryan and newsman and woman got on a plane to south america to check it out themselves. sadly three days later while she was driving she heard on the radio that the jim jones cult had commited a mass suicide and some 900 p[eople were dead. those were the only people she had known for almost 8 years she had lost her mother and her brothe was in prison for life for the supposed murders of the congressman and the newscrew. i guess things turned sour when some of the pepole had decided to leave with the congressman and that infuriated and scared jim. so when the defectors(names for people who left the church) and the newscrew and congress man e truck pulled up and shot more than half of them to death there were few survivors. jim scared the government would come get them now had everyon drink grape flavor-aid with cynaide poisoining in it and everyone died instantly and jim and his confidants shot themselves . when the government came there were thousands of dead smelly bodies laying in the hot jungle sun all day. this went down as one of the worst cult incidents in histroy