Nature Versus Nurture and Nell

Nature vs. Nurture is the controversial debate among Social Scientists about which one has a greater influence over the development of a human. Nature is the influence of inherited biological characteristics on human behavior as well as the influence of our genes. Our genes design an orderly sequence of biological growth processes called maturation. At one time, it was believed that people behaved in certain ways because they inherited behaviors from their parents. Nurture on the other hand is the process of training and influencing a child through learning. It is the influence of our environment and experiences and how they shape us. “Nell” is a story which clearly supports the nurture argument. Nell shows several examples of how her behavior has been influenced by her environment and experiences. Nell is a young woman who for the first time is faced to interact with other people. This was difficult for her because she had spent her entire life growing up in an isolated cabin with her mother and her twin sister, who died from a childhood disease. The story of Nell clearly proves the nurture argument by using multiple examples. From the beginning of the movie, the most obvious example was Nell’s unusual speech. It is difficult to understand what she is saying because she drops constants in her words. Half of her mother’s face was paralyzed (due to strokes) which caused her speech to be much different. Just as normal toddlers pick up on how their parents talk, Nell did the same. Nell and her sister learned to talk the same way their mother was because they didn’t know any different. This shows nurture because Nell’s mother influenced her speech. Nell’s speech was different because that is what she experienced growing up and it greatly influenced how she learned to talk. The way Nell acted around other people was very different from the way people would usually act. It was clear she did not have great communication skills due to nurture. Nell simply did not know