Shatter Me Character Analysis

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The premise of this paper is to describe fictional character Juliette Ferrars from the Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi, through an idiographic and nomothetic approach. An idiographic approach is concerned with trying to understand features that make individuals unique. Contrarily, a nomothetic approach is concerned with trying to understand features in a generalized manner. This approach categorizes major features which are then applied to larger groups. Based on an idiographic description of Juliette, her unique features consist of fragility, compassion, strength. Based on a nomothetic description, she is considerably high in emotionality, somewhat high to average in agreeableness, and low in extraversion. It is also to be known that her …show more content…
Her parents have abandoned her while openly admitting to her that they regretted conceiving her. She is then placed in solitary confinement for almost a year of which she manages to be strong enough to push through. As the series progress, her true colours begin to show when she becomes less timid and becomes outspoken. She has been deprived of both her freedom and happiness for too long that she refuses to continue to be a prisoner to the corrupt system of her society. She is seemingly fixated on the notion of a bird of which represents her freedom. She states at the beginning at the novel “There will be a bird today. It will be white with streaks of gold…it will fly.” (Mafi 27,2014). Later on in the novel, she states that she is in fact the bird and is finally flying away when she begins to feel that sense of freedom. Additionally, although she has been an outcast she remains hopeful that one day she will finally be accepted for who she …show more content…
She has been through many unfortunate situations which not many can relate too. It is evident that based on Juliette’s life experiences, she is not an average girl. As someone who has lacked human relationships, and social contact it, she is much more susceptible to an average individual who would have attended school, and had the chances to communicate and speak to people. Additionally, possessing a superpower and its affect on her daily life adds a great amount of uniqueness to her character. By restricting her personality to generalized descriptions (i.e. nomothetic), it limits her individual experiences that have made her such a unique person.

However, the nomothetic summary could still provide some information the idiographic summary cannot. The nomothetic summary is useful because it uses level and places If Juliette were to be compared to other characters in the novel, the idiographic description would remain the most useful because it would summarize Juliette’s character without restricting the level of her uniqueness. In other words, it allows her unique experiences to be considered. Additionally, what can be summarized in an idiographic description may not apply to all of the other

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