Nell1) The loss of Nell’s twin sister had a dramatic effect on her. Nell and Maywere raised in a secluded environment with no outside contact. As a result, Mayand Nell became very close emotionally and were an integral part in each otherslives. When May died, Nell lost part of her life as well which resulted invivid memory replay. A good example of this is when Nell was turning around incircles by herself but, in her mind, she was turning around in circles with hermissing half.
At the end of the movie, the evidence of the importance of May inNell’s life was still evident as Nell played will Jerry’s daughter on the rocksthat May and her once played on. The movie did portray what is generallybelieved about twins. The loss of one had a dramatic effect on the other. They had their own twin speech and their own games.
At the end of 20 plus years,Nell still felt the loss of her twin sister. 2) The expert psychologist in the movie believed that Nell was mentallyretarded and had made a small amount of intellectual development as a result ofbeing raised in seclusion. Fortunately, they were wrong. The speech that Nellgave in the courtroom proved that she had developed intellectually.
While thelanguage that she used was different, Nell still gave a good list of veryabstract ideas that someone who is mentally retarded could not possiblycomprehend. Nell understood why she was different saying that she was raised ina small world and knew small things unlike the large things found in the city ofCharlotte, N. C. This proved that Nell was very capable of living by herself andtaking care of herself. 3) The experts, in the beginning of the movie, said that Nell was notcapable of making the correct judgments to make in the world by herself. Theydid not believe that Nell had the wisdom to make the correct choices in lifesituations.
It seemed evident to me that Nell already possessed more thanenough wisdom to make it on her own. After all, she basically took care of hercrippled mother all by herself. 4) Nell is not mentally retarded. Nell was raised in seclusion withher twin sister and a crippled mother. The things that Nell learned wereobtained socially from a woman that had loss the use of part of her body. Thebody language that Nell had learned were obviously learned from observing hermother.
For an outside viewer Nell must have looked like she was mentallyretarded to some degree when, in fact, Nell was simply portraying the behaviorthat she learned from her mother. Nell learned almost all of her actionsthrough observation. A good example of this is Nell acting like a tree blowingin the wind. 5) In the beginning of the movie I did not think that Nell should betaken out of her home. Nell was surrounded basically with nothing but her ownthoughts for almost twenty years. Putting her in an environment where thousandsof outside things affect her thoughts would have been overwhelming.
Nell wasmuch like a young child in that she was unaware of what was socially acceptable. In this respect, taking Nell out of her home would have been extremely dangerousand traumatic as was seen in the bar scene with the young men. Nell had no ideathat nudity was socially unacceptable and made a mistake. My position on thiswas never swayed. I believed that Nell needed to find someone that she trustedand that could teach her about the strange world that she had never been a partof.
This needed to be accomplished in the comfort of a familiar surrounding. So, I agree 100% with the decision to leave Nell in her home in the woods.
