How Narrow Mindedness Can Be Dangerous

Imagine the life of a nomad, moving around to different place, meeting different people, and having different lifestyles. This is the life of the Walls family. In the book The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, she explains that life as a nomad was never amazing. Her life of moving around and being the same old poor child isn’t what she wanted to be. Throughout her journey, she has been discriminated and stereotyped for her family’s actions, and for the way she looks to the rest of the world. The point of this essay is to tell you that there are obstacles like this outside of the world of fiction. With the school board’s recent sentiments regarding the lack of value that fiction provides, fiction should not remain

Without perspective, adversity comes on top. People are unable to see the misfortune someone goes through behind closed doors. Likewise, they let rumours define the quality of a person. Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird exposes the realities of the dangers in judgement, and just how far that judgement induces false

As a blue car approaches the speaker, he experiences anxiety to the point that it “made [him] sweat” (18). The speaker in this moment suddenly fears society’s judgment of him, and his judgment comes in the form of two children his age. The children appear to be arrogant toward the speaker, and they “smirk” at his situation and appearance (22). Standing on a roadside with blackberries in hand, the speaker realizes his “unfitness” in the money-driven world, and his ideal childhood setting is disheveled by the “smirk” of strangers (22). At this moment, society jolts the speaker out of his daydreams and into adulthood. Wealth and power seem to be illustrated in the speaker’s view of the passing car, and with the car, the speaker seems to compare his life of berry-picking to that of a comfort-filled automobile. The car, a sign of power in society, brings coldness into the speaker’s life through the portrayal of air-conditioning, and as a result, the speaker no longer “[limbos] between the worlds” of the rich and the poor (17). His mind realizes the children superiority, and he becomes aware of society’s standings at this early age. His place becomes final- just a poor boy selling

Mistreated because of difference, because of gender, because of race, because of mental ability, mistreated because of “otherness”. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, describes the hard life of working on a ranch during the Great Depression. It is possible that Of Mice and Men is written to inform readers that otherness is when a character is excluded because of their characteristics. However, I believe Steinbeck’s point is much deeper, establishing that otherness is the weak inflicting pain on the weaker because of their shared pain of ostracism. He does this by illustrating the lives of Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s wife as they all struggle with being oppressed because they do not fit the societal standard or “norm”. Steinbeck pulls our attention to the interactions between each “other”, the characters that don’t fit the “norm”. He wants us to realize the consequences of a norm lead to weakness, starting oppression between the oppressed.

Oftentimes, in the public, people have to be “normal” to be successful and accepted. Author William Saroyan believes that society steers people to be conformed and fit in, but he wants people to be able to be diverse. In the short story “Gaston,” Saroyan shows that carving a unique path can turn out to be erroneous. Through symbolism and contrast, Saroyan conveys the theme that society does not always accept people’s differences.

According to the theory, a person may be close to others in proximity yet does not conform completely to the system and maintains their own customs and norms. As a result, a division arises in society between “the stranger” and other of different social groups who view this nonconformity as dangerous, threatening, and suspicious. The stranger may also have different expectations placed upon them than other groups in society. This divide that separates the stranger and society is compared to a veil, like that of Du Bois. Both theories discuss a “sense of otherness” that Individuals may experience in Society (Appelrouth & Edles, 2016, p. 289). The sense of otherness produces a strain in how members may act and view the world around them.

Prejudice is when we have a preconceived opinion about someone or a group of people that is formed without knowledge, or even a real understanding about them.

Damon Knight’s “The Country of the Kind” follows a narrator who the audience at first knows little about, who lives in a society that is different from the norm, but is also initially left ambiguous. This sense of the unknown exists up until the narrator stumbles upon a pamphlet which opens up new viewpoints to the reader. The pamphlet serves to create three new perspectives in particular, all of which significantly shift the reader’s understanding of the story. First, it gives the reader a chance to understand the narrator and sympathize with him. Second, it offers a new perspective on society and their overall conception of what defines a utopia. The third and final perspective is that of the people who live within this society, and their interactions with the main characters. These three new perspectives prove to be formative in understanding the main character, his interactions with other characters in the story, and the role of society.

In the short novel The Outsiders, written by S.E. Hinton, many 1960s stereotypes are used which separate the characters by where they live, how they dress, and how they act, but Hinton quickly gave characters who did not abide or fit these stereotypes. This showed that no matter your hair, dress, home, hobbies, or financial situation, everyone will always be different, but that doesn’t mean no two people cannot become friends. The stereotypes that follow you do not determine your personality or actions, only you.

Even as a full-grown adult, the author of The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls, still stands out as being different. Jeannette grew up in abnormal circumstances that some might consider neglectful or abusive. From her point of view, her upbringing was just her normal. Today, Walls is a successful author and public speaker. With her wacky stories, hearty life, and positive outlook, she is a likable character that has been formed and molded by her life experiences. Something that Jeannette and her family has dealt with throughout their life is appearing different than others around them. Being different, from looks to character, was a theme that proliferated Jeannette Walls’ book, The Glass Castle, just as being different

creates a play that illustrates not only the struggle of growing up in a prejudiced world but also

According to Elizabeth Lowell, “Some of us aren't meant to belong. Some of us have to turn the world upside down and shake the hell out of it until we make our own place in it.” Sometimes what every situation needs is an outsider to flip the script and create a new outlook on everything. In Shirley Jackson’s novel, “We Have Always Lived in the Castle,” the speaker, Merricat, is an outsider of society on many levels, such as mental health, gender, and that she is an upper class citizen in a poor area. Although Merricat is mentally unstable, her outsider’s perspective criticizes the social standard for women in the 1960s, indicating that social roles, marriage, and the patriarchy are not necessary aspects in life such as it is not necessary to have the same outlook on life as others.

Michael Crichton defines prejudice as “opinion in the absence of evidence”. This theme is embodied in Harper Lee’s classic novel To Kill A Mockingbird and brims throughout the course of the story. Harper Lee exemplifies prejudice by using the juxtaposition of the unbiased man, Atticus Finch and his disparaging sister, Alexandra. Atticus’s quote “you never really understand a person until you consider things from from his point of view-until you climb into his skin and walk around in it” relates to the quote by Michael Crichton because they both illustrate the theme that you cannot judge a book by its cover.(30)

“It takes a village to raise a child” (Goldberg). This old African proverb justifies that the upbringing of a child is a communal effort. The exposure to society and growing accustomed to the realities of life are beneficial to the growth of a child. These words hold a symbolic meaning to the importance of society and morality. Turning a blind eye to these words of wisdom deprive children of their understanding of humanity. This signifies the innocence of a child growing up in isolation as in Donoghue’s Room. Emma Donoghue uses her novel Room to illustrate that morality is a construct of society and growing up in isolation significantly narrows a child’s perception of life. Living in a

Throughout the short stories, characters endure circumstances that allow them to realize the unfairness of the world, ultimately causing a change in attitude. In “Souvenir,” the protagonist finds herself in a shop purchasing a pack of condoms for her mentally ill boyfriend while being followed by an old man. With the belief that sacrificing something precious of herself such as her virginity, the teenager initially felt that her love could save him from his mental illness. Those in the store around her, however, forced humiliation upon her, especially the elderly man. Finally becoming aware to those around her, she has an epiphany of those surrounding her in addition to the society she lives in. Witnessing the differences in people’s behaviors and attitudes, she grasps the understanding that people are influenced by others