A Girl Is Shunned

Writing has been around for quite some time. It has become essential for human living. It is a way of learning, communicating, and expressing emotions. It can be used to share ideas and spread messages. Some writing is more effective than others. There are pieces of writing in history that have helped many people, and there are pieces of writing that do not help anyone. It is good writing that makes an impact on a lot of people, or maybe even a few people. Good writing is based on its ability to relate to the world and society, and its ability to connect to the reader. Being able to relate to the acts of society makes a story good because it helps people understand how the world and everything around them works. They can portray the good
that mankind does, but they also portray the bad that mankind does without realizing that they’re doing it.
In the story “Shunned,” a girl is shunned from society because she is different and has gone against what everyone else believes in. She was shunned “to keep bad things from happening in a community. But it doesn’t correct [her] life gone wrong” (Hall 50). Society shuns all the time without knowing it. It is done because it is how people have always done it. Looking down at those who are different, or those who do not meet the standards of society is one form shunning performed. Society not only shuns, but it also criticizes those who do shun as well. Society does not help the outcasts in need, rather they look down upon them while looking down upon the people who look down upon others. This story portrays that with a society outcasting someone who is different because she is not perfect, when in reality, society is not perfect as well. People begin to understand that society believes it is perfect, and does not treat those who do not fit into society with respect. As well as in “Three Spheres,” many of the doctors did not treat the mental patients well. The patients thought that the doctors “always keep [them] waiting,” and how they want a doctor “who’ll really care” (Slater 12). Since the mental patients
are outcasts of society, they are not treated the best they can be. The only reason they are helped is because people have jobs that require them to help those patients. Otherwise, they would not have much help at all and would just be looked down on. This story shows people how society isolates people that are different and keeps them away from society. Although the people need help, they are kept in a place that feels very cold and unwelcoming. By sending mental patients to mental hospitals, people feel like they are helping them, but they’re really helping themselves. They are removing them from the community and sending them to a place where they will be “helped.” Society has done this before, but not because of society's standards, but because the people that were different had a different skin color. Their colored skin made them inferior to all the upper class white Americans. Racism can be still found today, and people do not even realize they’re being racist. Just as in “Looking at Emmett Till,” people believe that a “black boy [was] whistling at a white woman… and [was] killed for it” (Wideman 40). That is the story everyone is told, even though it is not true according to the author. Since the victim was black, the news makes up stories and always finds ways to blame the colored kid. People believe in what the news tells them because it’s what society want them to believe. Even today in real life, there have been incidents of white people shooting and killing unarmed black teenagers and claiming self-defense. There are articles that say how it should be the shooters’ faults, but there are also articles claiming that it was the teenagers’ faults. This story shows people how society slightly changes the facts that they release to the public to make them believe what they want them to believe. When people read and understand these stories, they realize how society works and can try to move away from the bad parts of mankind. If they do, they become different and then ostracized from society.
Writing that has the ability to connect to the reader also makes a story good because it becomes more meaningful.
The reader will be able to understand what’s going on and also relate. When people connect to each other, they become closer and understand each other. If one does not have a connection with anyone, they feel alone in the world. In “Shunned,” a girl had her “family, church, [and] school… turn [their backs on her]” (Hall 50). People can connect whenever they feel lonely and feel like there is no one around for them. They need to be surrounded by others and be part of a community to feel safe. With none of that present, a person may feel isolated and unwanted. Readers can connect by the way society treats those who are different. They understand that if someone is different from society, they often are treated differently and poorly. People can also relate to a more topic compared to the views of society. They can also relate to something about a family member. Similarly in “Chimera,” a man loses his wife, yet he sees her “[walk] into a pastry shop where [he] was buttering a croissant” (Callahan 368). A relationship formed with another person, especially a spouse, is a very strong one. Even when they’re gone and a long time has passed, it his still hard for one to stop thinking about them. People can relate to the story if they have ever lost someone that they love. Even if the reader has not lost anyone, they still understand the emotions one would go through at
the time. Any reader can connect to the story and sympathize with the author. Relationships can also be formed before someone is born, and a person would still be able to connect to it. Just as in “Delivering Lily.” The birth of a child can be a very stressful event, and “ Weeks afterward, smiling and accepting congratulations, [the author] continued to tremble from the violence of the baby’s birth” (Lopate 438). Before a child is born, both the parents are very stressed out and curious. They wonder if everything will be alright and go according to plan. Afterwards, one realizes it was worth it to experience all the stress to have a beautiful, smiling baby. Anyone, especially parents, would be able to connect to the story. They have been through this as well, and know what it’s like. Children with younger siblings also understand because they have seen their parents being frantic before their little brother or sister was born. The experience with the first child, however, is a lot more chaotic just because it is a couple’s first child. With a reader being able to connect to the story, they understand the emotion that is going on in the story, and they can relate to the events.
Pieces of writing that explain society and also connect to the reader makes a person want to read more of the story and be persuaded. These stories that affect the reader and have an impact is what makes them good and effective. Anyone can string words together and put them down on a page. For those words to mean anything and be effective, it must do a lot more than explain or tell a story. It must have a larger impact on society.