Puppets Of Society

She always felt different from everyone else, but she could never really place why. Everybody was perfectly fine with following the newest trend from who knows where and not even making their own choices, just going along with whatever society deemed as “cool” at the moment. Apparently, wanting to be your own person was a bad thing, but why was it so terrible that you were punished for voicing your own opinion?
She learned long ago to keep her thoughts to herself, to not question anything and mindlessly copy the others. There is no individuality in this world, and she was supposed to be fine with that.
Everyone had to dress the same, talk the same, even look the same. Everything had to be the same and there were no exceptions. She sometimes couldn’t even tell her family apart from the other mindless drones known as humans. The amount of time people spent trying to “fix” themselves to be presentable to society sickened her, yet she didn’t do anything about it.
“Same” is safe but she wasn’t happy. She could no longer count the number of surgeries her parents forced her to have to follow the trends or how much makeup she wore to cover up any differences. She felt like she could go crazy if she kept hiding her thoughts and opinions, if she didn’t do what she wanted to do herself, simply because she wanted to, not because everyone else wanted to.
She always fought with herself. Would she rather not have her own thoughts but be included by society, or would she rather be her own person but be isolated from everyone?
She felt like this world had to be a pretty messed up place if she was having this problem, and she couldn’t even share her troubles with anyone else in fear of being ignored and forgotten.
She was a mere puppet of society but all she wanted was to be human.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

3 Comments

  1. Kayla,

    I must say! The title completely drew me in… It captured this story perfectly!
    Reading further, I see into the eyes of a character whom many can relate to. I absolutely love stories that help you connect to your own feelings, it makes the piece feel so much more human.
    As for the last line, oh my gosh! I loved it so much. I could feel my heart shatter into a million pieces. This is beautiful!
    Furthermore, one grow I can suggest to you would be to focus more on where you begin a new paragraph. It can really help with the flow of the story! : )
    I look forward to more of your works!!!

  2. Kayla,
    This is truly a work of art in my eyes, you have captured the human nature in a highly poetic fashion. The need for acceptance in society overlooks one’s individuality and their input on the trends of modern teens. Even if you wish to protest, who will listen to you? I feel that you really poured your soul into this piece and I commend you for that since it is very hard to do so. If I may suggest one thing, perhaps split your work into smaller paragraphs; bulky paragraphs tend confuse the reader (including myself at times) and you may lose them halfway through.

  3. Dear Kayla.
    First of all, I’m so excited to be in the same class as you because your style of writing is really intriguing. I enjoyed the concept of this piece a lot – the theme of individuality being lost in a society filled with judgement is extremely prevalent in high school, and I think a lot of the writers in our class can relate to this. I also really liked your title, it drew me in as soon as I saw it. I would have loved to see you use the metaphor of puppets in this piece, because I feel like it would add a certain poetic style that you’re on the brink of achieving.
    With Love,
    Alysha

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *