Victim Mentality
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What does the future hold for us? No one knows, no one knows for
sure, only God. With anticipation and optimism we view it as a variety
program or better yet as smooth road with bumps every let’s say
million miles throughout which a myriad of events take place that can be
both positive and then again not so positive. However, a person should
always tend to look at their future with a constructive and upbeat outlook,
which enables them to grow in all aspects of their health triangle.
Nevertheless, there are those who view the future with a completely
unenthusiastic, depressing, downbeat, and negative outlook. This is
categorized as a victim mentality. Blaming everyone else for what occurs in
your life and world and believing that the future only holds negative things
for you is not healthy and is not fair for yourself or those around you and
your immediate environment. By doing this your just making yourself carry
extra baggage in addition to your daily stress and unexpected problems
that arise when everything seems to be going right. The perfect example of
a victim mentality is Stanley Yelnats the main character from the book
Holes. As an overweight child he tends to question his life and his overall
purpose for his peers make fun of him and he therefore has a tough time at
school. In addition, to this however, is the fact that his family has been
cursed with a bad luck due to a spell put on his great grandfather.
Therefore, there is not much good luck to look forward to in life for his bad
luck never seems to cease. Not to mention that they live under subsistence
conditions meaning that they have just enough money to make it each day,
they are quite poor. It is basically his grandfathers fault that he has a
miserable life and he blames everything on everyone else. Then again he
always seems to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
To top it all of he is sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention
camp for boys, for a crime he did not commit where boys are forced to dig
large holes daily. It was either this or jail at such a young age. Since his
parents were poor he did not have a big choice. Once again this is his “no-good-dirty-rotten- pig-stealing-great-great-grandfathers fault. In this camp
he has a tough time as the new kid and is made to live and work under the
most atrocious conditions and is made fun of, excluded, and taken
advantage of. However, in the long run these friends end up helping him
overcome his victim mentality. As the book progresses, Stanley slowly
develops physical strength and personal strength. He identifies the people
who threaten him, like the Warden, and while he tries not to get in trouble
he also stands up for his own right and the rights of his friends. Stanley
gradually develops the self-confidence necessary to disregard the opinions
of the majority of the boys and form a friendship with Zero, the least
popular kid in the camp.
Although the cruelty of those around him initially cause Stanley to
become hard and treat Zero with contempt, he eventually