Journal Four

Personal Reflection

I personally can greatly relate to some of the themes and conflicts that occur in this novel.  Not on a level of race, but as far as social rules, and judgement, and such, I have had my fair share of negative experiences with these.  From grade 1 to grade 6, I was hugely bullied by these two girls at my elementary school.  They treated me so poorly and in fact told me that they found joy in making me cry.  In grade 6 however things became much more vicious. They began making stories up about me and lying to the other girls in my class about various things about me.  All in the attempts to turn all of the other girls against me and so that no one would talk to me or be my friend.  For me this was very upsetting and a very difficult thing for me to go to.  Any girl that DID decide to hang out with me at recess or talk to me in class, would later be approached by all the other girls and given a hard time about doing so, and normally the next day they would avoid me as well.  I am not in ANY way implying that these situations are remotely equal.  However personally I did face issues of the same thought just on a MUCH smaller scale.  The group of girls that I had to deal with at my school could be compared to the Junior League in the novel and I could be compared to Mrs. Celia Foote or any of the black maids in the novel The Help.  Not with the exact actions that took place, but with the general overall feel of how these girls behaved and treated others.  They were very popular, rich and had influence over everyone in the class.  If you went against something they said or didn’t follow what they wanted, they would gang up and be incredibly mean, as well as would decide to not speak to anyone who did try to be nice to me, much as the socialites in the Junior League become cold and shun Skeeter once she begins to voice opposing opinions from them. What I have learnt since dealing with this, is that first of all I am 6 years older and so have grown up and matured lots since having to go through this.  Back then I was too afraid to stand up for myself and tell the girls they were wrong because even though they were mean to me, I was too nice of a person and didn’t ever want to hurt someone else’s feelings.  In this respect,  I haven’t changed much, however because of that experience as well as others, I have learnt that if you are too nice all the time, people will take advantage of you and walk all over you.  If I were to be back in that situation, I would have stood up for myself, as I now do if I am ever faced with negativity from people around me.