“Shunning is supposed to keep bad things from happening in a community. But it doesn’t correct the life gone wrong. It can only expose the transgression to a very raw light, use it as a measure, a warn to others…” (xi-xii)
When someone does some thing that most people in the community frowned upon the entire community begins to shun that person. One example that is used in the memoir, Without A Map by Meredith Hall, is adultery. Getting pregnant at the age of sixteen is not something to be shunned for, in my opinion. I find it as a punishment in itself. I am only seventeen and I would have had the baby already, which means my social life would be over, all my money would go towards supporting my child, and I would not get the opportunity to live at college or anything. Also, knowing my parents would be ashamed in me as well is punishment enough, let alone the entire community.
The third sentence about the transgression, I believe is completely false. Just because they are shunning one poor girl for her wrong doing does not mean it will stop all the other girls from getting pregnant. It will not warn the others, it will just teach the others that she is only human and everyone makes mistakes. Mistakes are what make us human and that is how we learn, by our own mistakes. You can not learn from others unless it directly effects you.
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