Nell
... taught, by her mother, to only go out at night so no one would see her. Nell’s mother didn’t want anyone to find Nell and hurt her. She told Nell about how mean men are, which made Nell even more fearful of the male doctor and the police man. The men were invading her space by being in her home and Nell was unsure what to do about it. Nell, after spending lots of time with the doctors and getting to know them, slowly began to trust and befriend the doctors, as they watched her in her home. When the word about Nell “wild child” living in the forest got around the town, a half dozen reporters swarmed her house with their helicopters and cameras shinning bright lights on her, it brought back all of her past fears of outsiders. Nell was brought to a hospital where she was to stay for a while. Nell was very sad and scared, she couldn’t understand why she was taken from her home and why there were people trying to scare her with flashes (cameras) and take her away from her sister and her life. Nell had been taught to take care of herself and to do things a certain way but when the doctors came to watch her and monitor her she didn’t know exactly how to act. Nell’s usually enjoyed sitting in front of the mirror (when she thought she saw her sister) and talking with her, while there were people in her home she didn’t feel comfortable doing this. While she was getting used to her company all she did was sleep thru the day and sneak out in the night. There were new people around touching her things and creating problems, problems she didn’t know how to handle and deal with. Nell acted very different when she thought no one was watching (sneaking off to play in the forest and singing to herself), trying to keep her life the way it always was. When the doctors tried to show Nell new things, (to come out in the day and how to say words properly) she would pretend like she couldn’t see them, the only thing that she could think to do to make them leave. Once Nell had established some type of friendship with the doctors, they took her into town to see how she would handle the environment change. Nell and the doctors were strolling around the town when Nell wandered off from her friends to fallow a sound she was very familiar with, Nell heard laughter. Nell went into the bar, where she heard the sound coming from and watched the men laugh and joke around at the one man dancing around with his shirt off. Nell knew what laughter was and it happened when her and her sister were having fun, so Nell lifted up her shirt, like the man was doing and copied what she saw. Because of Nell’s isolation she didn’t know that was she was doing was wrong and inappropriate, according to the people in the town. Nell fallowed the man’s actions and kept twirling while all of the local town’s people laughed at her. Nell, because she lived so far from any people or electronics, had never listened to any type of music. Nell was unsure and afraid of this noise she was hearing. Nell was unable to calmly react to the new sounds, instead she ran away crying and screaming until she couldn’t hear anymore. One of the biggest and main effects Nell’s extreme isolation caused her was her inability to speak so anyone else could understand her. Because Nell’s mother had had many strokes, she was unable to speak clearly and, because she was the only person teaching two young girls how to speak, she passed that ...