Touching Spirit Bear Banishment Essay

In life, people who commit immoral actions are banished from society. Banishment can be defined as “the state of being excluded from society by general consent.” When a conceited human being is miserable, he may resort to wicked ways of life and as a result, may face banishment. By being isolated from society, he can reflect on his actions and go through changes within himself. Nonetheless, certain individuals have unethical thoughts implemented in his mind and no matter the circumstance, he will find ways to cheat the system which defeats the purpose of banishment. Banishment can be effective for some people more so than others depending on one’s age and past.

To begin, banishment can be be advantageous in plenty of ways. Initially, in the novel Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen the protagonist, Cole, burns down his shelter. Cole is forced to repair the damage he has caused. This teaches the individual to be responsible. Otherwise, he will be the only one suffering. Next, banishment can give the

offender the opportunity to reflect on his actions and feel remorseful. With the time given, he can attempt to make psychological changes and think of ways to make amends. Additionally, by spending more time outside in nature he can learn more about himself. The offender can begin the healing process. Like Cole, he can change his attitude in an attempt to make up for the mistakes he has made in the past. To conclude, banishing a criminal can be effective because of psychological and emotional conditions.

Furthermore, banishing a human being into the wilderness can be detrimental.

For instance, it is time-intensive. People of the community will have to make themselves available so that they can monitor the criminal’s progress. In Touching Spirit Bear, Garvey, a worker of the juvenile justice system, invested his time to observe Cole in order to ensure banishment is effective. Moreover, the offender can take advantage of being banished. Like Cole, perhaps he is simply there because he believes he is taking advantage of the system by escaping jail time. In this case, he is not changing and the act of banishment has failed. Likewise, if the individual has a low level of maturity, he could be wasting time trying to find a reason to change. Understanding yourself takes a lot of time and if he does not possess maturity then developing into an improved person can be difficult. Overall, deporting a criminal on another island can result in

failure.

To introduce, multiple factors must be considered when a sentence is being decided for an offender. For a start, one could argue that banishment is a failure and is not the finest form of sentence for a fraction of individuals. An alternative to banishment is custody. Some people are better off with custody; others are better off with being banished. Similarly, an offender’s age should be acknowledged while being considered for a sentence. If the criminal is less than fourteen years of age, the possibility of banishment being successful is slim. The effectiveness of banishment on an individual depends on his level of maturity. Particularly, banishment should be decided by the history of the criminal. If the offender has committed numerous crimes, perhaps the more efficient sentence would be banishment. Cole had a history of committing serious violent offenses and instead of going into custody he was banished. Ultimately, banishment can fail or flourish depending on the person and his history.

When an arrogant individual is despondent with his life, he may consider wounding others for the sake of his satisfaction resulting in banishment. Due to isolation, he can perceive his actions in a different perspective. A portion of individuals will seek ways to deceive the system by possessing dishonest thoughts which overthrows the objective of banishment. Considering the criminal’s age and history, banishment may be more sufficient for him than others. In essence, the efficiency of banishment relies on the individual and their willingness to learn from their actions.