Ostracism In Jodi Picoult's Nineteen Minutes

As clever as human beings are, we still rely on social groups for survival. We evolved to live in cooperative societies, and for most of human history we depended on those groups for our lives. Like hunger or thirst, our need for acceptance emerged as a mechanism for survival. But when we don't have that, we tend to become disconnected from society, which ultimately leads to social rejection. Being socially rejected can also be the reason why people commit horrific acts. In the novel Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult shows that being socially ostracized can affect someone's life significantly.

Throughout human history ostracism has been a problem within society. Ostracism often expresses group fear, either physical or spiritual. A person can be ostracized due to illness, physical difference, or even normal bodily functions considered threatening. Ostracism has been a common strategy in dealing with those considered deviants or low-status by the group and is linked to all forms of prejudice. Peter Hughington in the book Nineteen Minutes is socially ostracized because he is not like the other kids. He poses a threat to social groups because he is different and not popular. Peter is considered a person of low status and no one wants to be associated with that type of person.

Being on

the receiving end of a social snub causes a cascade of emotional and cognitive consequences. Social rejection increases anger, anxiety, depression, jealousy and sadness. It reduces performance on difficult intellectual tasks, and can also contribute to aggression and poor impulse control. Rejection takes a toll on people. Being rejected is also bad for your health. People who feel isolated and lonely and excluded tend to have poor physical health, they don’t sleep well, and their immune systems sputter. When you are socially ostracized people feel like “...everyone else's eyes on you, stuck like Velcro. You can hear a whisper about you from a mile away. You can disappear, even when it looks like you're still standing right there. You can scream, and nobody hears a sound.” (Picoult 168). Being excluded is also associated with poor mental health, and exclusion and mental health problems can join together in a destructive loop. People with depression may face exclusion more often because of the symptoms of their disorder and being rejected makes them more depressed. A feeling of exclusion can also contribute to suicide. It isn’t just a problem for the person who suffers it, it can disrupt society as a whole. People who have been excluded often lash out against others. Rejection can even contribute to violence and the victim ultimately takes it into their own hands to stop the situation from going on any longer. Peter took matters into his own hands and decided to do what he thought was right. He thought that “Instead of doing the best thing, we sometimes have to settle for the rightest thing.” (Picoult 258). He didn't know any other way to act at the time and thought was he was doing was the right thing to handle the situation. He was in so much pain that he settled for what was right in his mind. It’s very hard to find situations in which rejection isn’t painful. When someone is socially ostracized he or she may become aggressive as a way to force others to feel the same way. They want the people on the other end to feel as much pain as they did once before. Sadly, that can create a downward spiral. When people act aggressively, they’re even less likely to gain social acceptance.
Recovering from social unacceptance can be a challenge because unacceptance affects a person on so many different levels.

Ostracization impairs the four basic human needs; belonging, control, self-esteem, and meaningful existence. It dramatically raises anxiety levels, causes depression, despondency and sometimes actual physical pain. Some people recover differently and use the act of violence to cope with this event. Some individuals want to see other people suffer as a way of dealing with social unacceptance. They use other people's pain and grieving as a way of healing themselves. In the end, recovery from social unacceptance is difficult and is not an easy situation to come back

from.
Being socially ostracized can affect someone's life significantly. It can lead to traumatizing events and very severe life problems such as depression and suicide. It can make people even make them act violently. People who suffer from this have a reduced performance on difficult intellectual tasks that can also be aggressive and have poor impulse control. People that are rejected slowly crumble as each day goes on. They wonder if it will get any better or if their situation will lose control. But sometimes people are so broken that they can't take it anymore and lose control. Some people do things that cost them their lives and the lives of other people. They end up doing something that no one would ever think of doing. In the end Peter couldn't take it, he reached a breaking point and lost control of his sanity. He did something that no one would ever think of doing, but he thought it was the only way to make it stop.