Neffie Isolation

In the short story "Who Said We All Have To Talk Alike," author Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel demonstrates how isolation is not found through being different, but in how one's communities react to one's differences. In Snowball, Neffie's speech impediment didn't cause anyone to treat her any different than if she had perfect speech. It is only Beryl's snide comments and eventual firing of Neffie because of her pronunciation problem that made Neffie feel isolated. Sometimes it does not matter how many people accept you openly if one person does not.
Many people loved Neffie, and paid little attention to her speech problem. In the town of Snowball she was a “a great women, everyone agreed.” During the first half of the book, there is no mention of

Neffie ever feeling isolated or even feeling different in any way. In fact, it is not until she visits California that Neffie really understands that she is different. This proves that Neffie feeling different had nothing to do with her being different but in how people treated her differently because of her differences.
The conflict of the story is very much man vs.

man, Neffie verus Beryl. More specifically, the story is about whether Neffie’s determination and perseverance against Beryl’s prejudice will be strong enough for Neffie to maintain her view of herself as the “free worman (pg.82)” she is. On her bus ride home, Neffie is hurt at the eye-opening experience of not being treated equal. She feels isolated as if Beryl “took a sharp knife and cut a melon in half, and thrown away half that was me (Neffie).” However, Neffie questions Beryl’s want for Neffie to assimilate which hints that Neffie will indeed rise above Beryl’s unequal treated as a less naïve but strong women.
The community of Snowball was much nicer to Neffie as oppose to the treatment Neffie received from Beryl. Neffie lived her whole life receiving fair treatment from her neighbors, but even after a life of acceptance Beryl still managed to make Neffie feel isolated. This just goes to show how much one’s actions will affect someone. Everybody is different and nobody is unequal unless one says they are. After all, the way Neffie was treated changed dramatically although Neffie didn’t change at all. The way one acts to others, shows much more about one’s character than how one is

treated.