How Nature And Nurture Influenced Nobody Bod
The book graveyard book is a story about the adventures of a kid named Nobody Owens who is the main character. The author provides insight to a long-existing conundrum in psychology about the major factor that shapes his characteristics , either nature or nurture. Nature, from Saul Mcleord is the genetic makeup of a human being while nurture is the person’s environment which is characterized by learning, exposure and experience. In this book, Nobody’s behaviour is influenced by both in several ways which are explained through the numerous adventures that Bod has as he grows up in the graveyard.
Nurture influenced Bod by ensuring that he survives. In the argument about nurture influencing a person’s life, the theory of attachment by Bowlby explains that a mother and her children have a special link that ensures survival. This theory can be seen clearly in the first few pages. A man named Jack murders Nobody’s parents. While his parents are being murdered, Bod wakes up and jumps out of his crib and walk up the hill, and hence escapes the killer. The attachment theory is supported in this case as the bond that the mother and the son have is used to signal the mother that Nobody is in danger and hence nurture’s instincts kick in which drive Nobody to jump out of his crib and walk up the hill.
Nurture is in play here as the mother-son’s bond created a “distress signal” that pushed Nobody to flee the house to avoid the imminent danger which further shows the influence that nurture had on Bod’s survival.In the next few pages, we can clearly see also see how nature influenced Bod’s knowledge. Bod is raised by a vampire, two ghosts and other supernatural beings. Bod starts to learn how to read and write when he is four years old. The supernatural beings barely have to read, so the instinct to get more knowledge and grow his intelligence was through nurture. He felt a strong desire to read and that made him attend school, although the author explains that “…even his friends forgot about him...”. He still had the urge to expand his knowledge base despite being bullied and being forgotten. He had always been inquisitive which was in him since birth and hence showing that nurture influenced him to gain knowledge. He gained more interest in education when he learned that there is a person who killed his parents and that he needed more information. This pushed him to read more which also shows a small role that education played.
On the other hand, nature influenced his behaviour Bandura came up with a theory named social learning theory that stated that observation and imitation can help a person to learn about aggression. Carol S. Dweck then explained further that our brain grows when it is fed with information, and that that databank will be useful when a person is dealing with another situation. This is visible when his profile rises in the school and other students start to bully him. This shapes his behaviour as this is among the first time that the author shows him learning how to differentiate the good from the bad. Mo (Maureen) and Nicki were used to bullying Nobody, and since he could not reason with them, he used a page from their bullying book and used his gift to bully them back in their dreams.
This is nature in play, as he learnt aggression from Maureen and Nicki and through imitation (which brain had learned from an earlier similar event) (Carol S. Dweck); he went to Nick’s dream and intimidated him until he changed his ways. Nick not only changes his ways, but also stops associating with Maureen. The change theory of behaviourism is in act here as we can see experience changing Nick to be a better person and Bod to have a good behaviour.
Nobody learns a lot in school, and through nature, he learns the good behaviours and the bad. Nature teaches him to be revenge in order to change behaviour of people he considered to have bad behaviours. This is not only shown in him attacking Nick in his dream, but also when he revenges his parent’s death. While he was in school, he learned through Silas that his parents were murdered by Jack and he wants to revenge. Revenge is from his experience that revenge is problem-solver. This is what he was ready from and his experience would help him win when he fought with Jack. This is yet another example showing how nature influenced Bot’s behaviour Nurture and nature both can be argued to have influenced Nobody’s destiny to be the person who ends Jack’s order. Eventually, he became a killer, as seen by how Scarlett says,” “You aren’t a person. People don’t behave like you. You’re as bad as he was. You’re a monster.” This is not a product of nature since he was destined to be the one who would kill Jack Dandy. ‘“Long time ago, one of our people – that was back in Egypt, in pyramid days – he foresaw that one day, there would be a child born would walk the borderland of the living and the dead. That if this child grew to adulthood it would mean the end of our order and all that we stand for.” These were Jack’s words and they came true to a fault. The end of their order came when Nobody fought and defeated all of them, and this was only possible because of nature that taught him to revenge, which he learned from dealing with being bullied and perhaps, nurture. The Jack would only have predicted their fate if there was a specific hereditary factors that Nobody had that had to be triggered and sharpened by the nature. It can be argued that they both influenced him to be who he was destined to be. Although killing Jack might have made him a monster, nature might have influenced Nobody’s behaviour to be a kind person.
The nature theorists believed that a person character can be molded by experiences and learning (McLeord). Killing of his parent’s killers can make Nobody a hero since he managed to bring down and evil group that thrived through fear and people’s suffering. Nature influenced his behaviour and made him learn to differentiate the good from the bad. This can be seen from his interaction with Miss Lepescu. When he was six years old, he met a group of ghouls and they went for an adventure to hell. While there, other ghouls try to make her food and he is saved by Miss Lepescu. From this experience, he learns to appreciate people who help her. This is nature in play, and this experience alone made him show kindness and compassion to a witch, Liza Hempstock who is buried in the edges of the graveyard. He came to learn that Liza Hempstock is sad because her grave is never neat or tidy. She is also sad that her grave does not have a headstone. Nobody then decided to be kind and help her with one. She eventually does that which shows that nature (through experience) influenced her to be more compassionate and to help those that are sad. Nature also taught him some small but memorable lessons like the consequences of negative actions like stealing. This happens when he steals the Brooch which belongs to the sleer and the consequence is getting caught by the pawnbroker when he tries to trade it in. The pawnbroker tries to force him to lead him to more treasure. He escapes with the help of the witch and this might have taught him a lesson. This is an example of how nature has influenced him to curve a hero identity.
Nature, represented as environmental triggers, have a huge influence in someone’s character. To study how nature influences someone requires the analysis of someone’s friends because after all, birds of a feather flock together. Nobody’s is positively influenced by his friend’s behaviour . The best people to consider here are Scarlett who is seen as the controlling force. She appears in two of the 8 chapters of the book, but her influence is seen through the book. Since scarlet is a part of his influence, she holds Nobody responsible for his action. There is no one in the group who cares about Nobody enough to force him to think of his actions. In chapter 7, she says “You aren’t a person. People don’t behave like you. You’re as bad as he was. You’re a monster.” She holds him accountable to his actions after he fed Jack to a nasty sleer. She questions if there was another way that Nobody would have dealt with Jack. It can be argued that she is a bit harsh but it helps shape his character and learn that if he wants to be a person, then he needs to act more humane and learn that violence does not solve everything.
Nature and nurture have influenced Nobody’s attitude to both the living and the dead. After Nobody’s parents are murdered, he is adopted by two ghosts. They give him the name Nobody, feed him, and provide him with education. The environment round him is filled with supernatural beings like ghosts, witches, ghouls, among others. This changes his attitude towards the different people. Some of the supernatural beings that he interacts with are Silas, The Owens, and Liza. The Owens adopt him and make give him freedom of the graveyard which is a responsibility that he first uses to teach Magdalene and Nick, who were bullying him, to stop. The Owens also adopt him which is an act of kindness that Nobody learns through experience and uses later on to help the sad and helpless, like Lisa. The other person in the same environment is Silas who is the one who feeds him and becomes his official guardian. He is Nobody’s teacher and later on, this collection of knowledge helps him fight off Jack. Even Nobody’s first teacher, Miss Lepesku who is his official teacher, teaches him reading and writing which helps him grow to be brilliant boy and of benefit to the society by dismantling the group of people who killed his parents.
In the end of the book, we find the 15-year old boy, full of life and lessons that nature and nature has impacted on him ready to leave the graveyard to go to the world of the living. The book provides more instances that nature influenced Nobody since their parents died in the first chapter and they could have provided contrast in their behaviour s. This makes nature to thrive and show us just how much that he changed and how nature and nurture molded him to be the full grown up seen leaving the graveyard at the end of the last chapter.
