Alienation Essay, Research Paper

A L I E N A T I O N

I guess you could say I live off alienation. It seems in my life I have always asked to be alienated from my surroundings. Just like many great authors and artists I found alienation to be a great tool to teach people the age-old lesson that one should not “judge a book by its cover.”

In class we talked about alienation but we never discussed how it could teach a lesson in a beneficial way. We talked about how alienation is not all bad but we never really concentrated on the good points.

When I moved to a new town in eighth grade I decided I didn?t want to fit in right away. I didn?t want people to think I was the way I looked I wanted them to get to know me.

The town I moved to was a mainly farming community in rural Illinois. The kids dressed like farmers and then there was me a freak who preferred the gothic look. It was tough at first having no friends but I would not let myself give in. I wanted to show that you couldn?t judge me by my looks. Of course some open-minded students began to talk to me, the outcast. I?m still friends with them today because they chose not to look at me as different but just another student.

Over the next few years my look changed but was never what was referred to as the “norm”. Over and over again I was teased and touted just because that was easier to do that then to get to know me. The most surprising thing to me was the fact that the teachers acted the same way as the students. I thought that since they were older they would be more open-minded. Instead it was just the opposite. They used my look to try and foresee what type of student I was. They couldn?t have been more wrong.

By my senior year of high school I was ranked number three in my class of 105. When word of this got out people were shocked. Here was the kid they thought was just a waste and not worth anything. When in fact I had worked harder then them and had more to show for it.

So I believe alienation is also a useful tool as well as a negative effect of society.