The Hedgehog Palomo Stereotypes

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Recommended: Impact of stereotypes

Stereotypes are used in everyday human life to quickly identify and process situations and new information. In psychological terms, stereotypes make the organization and categorization of information easy. Stereotypes can be useful tools humans use to survive day to day, and the reason we have evolved to quickly stereotype is because of the amazing way it would keep us alive in the early days of man. Now as a settled and global population stereotyping is less effective at keeping us alive and more effective at holding us back. When humans use stereotypes today they lead to prejudices and break apart communities and connections we are meant to have with one another as a species. In The Elegance of the Hedgehog Palomo uses stereotypes to fortify …show more content…

If they use stereotypes to hide their true selves because they believe that the world would be cruel to them, how do they know that everyone else doesn’t also feel the same way? Paloma isolates herself within her stereotype not as protection like Renee, but to further prove to herself that she is the smartest person in the room. he blatant lack of communication in this novel only hurts the ability to understand the actual world, which she knows very little about. Paloma is extremely selfish in the ways she interacts with the world, being a child who has everything she could ever wish for but searches high and low for problems to be miserable about. The idea of the African children (who she stereotypes as being miserable and poor) the idea that she is the smartest person in her life, and the idea that the only way to save herself is to die stem from her isolation. Paloma actively chooses isolation rather than attempting to connect with other people. Humans are social creatures and Palomas disregard of others only leads to her further unhappiness, which she has to prove as her being forced out of community settings because of her “high” intelligence. Her thoughts are not profound, they are the questions of a child. Paloma carefully tucks away people in boxes the same way she feels she has been without the thought or consideration of others. Stereotyping only hurts this character driving her to the point of

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