Social Darwinism, as the name clearly implies, is the application of Darwinian Theory to human society. Darwinism itself is a concept of evolution developed in the mid-19th century by Charles Robert Darwin. Darwin's observations led him to question the then current belief in special creation of each species. Darwin observed that although all organisms tend to reproduce in an increasing ratio, the numbers of a given species remain more or less constant. From this he deduced that there is a continuing struggle for existence, for survival. He pointed out the existence of variation differences among members of the same species. From this, he suggested that the variations that prove helpful to a plant or an animal in its struggle for existence better enable it to survive and reproduce. These favorable variations are thus transmitted to the offspring of the survivors and spread to the entire species over successive generations. This process he called the principle of natural selection. As originally formulated, Darwinism did not distinguish between acquired characteristics, which are not transmissible by heredity, and genetic variations, which are inheritable. .
Soon after the publishing of Darwin's most famous work, "origin of species," a man named Herbert Spencer proposed the idea of social Darwinism. Social Darwinism holds that the principle's of Darwinism applies to human ethics and politics just as it does to biological evolution. One of the main concepts of Social Darwinism that is often discussed is whether or not our personal choices are limited. A good way to analyze this concept is to see whether or not it shows up in contemporary writings. For this I have chosen Chris McKinney's novel, The Tattoo. The Tattoo does support the concept of Social Darwinism. This is shown by how the characters surrounding forces dictate their futures. .
The Tattoo is story written about the life of a man named Ken Hideyoshi.
