The Life of an Introvert

Introverts in Stories

I want to talk about a story that I saw the other day. This is actually my friend's book, which she had written a couple years ago and didn't finish. She dug it up the other day and both of us talked about it. She gave me permission to "review" the summary on here. (Friend, if you're out there, I'll be gentle, I swear).

Anyway, I'm obviously not going to throw my buddy under the bus by revealing her name, and the book was never published in any way so there's no point in giving out the title.

Here's the summary.

"Thomas Chase is not what you would consider popular, and he kind of likes staying out of the public eye as much as possible. He's a regular kid, except that he's kind of an introvert. What happens when he joins his high school's basketball team in freshman year and is thrust into recognition? When he gets invited to all the parties and reported on by the school newspaper? Will this introvert finally come out of his shell?"

Okay, so yes, this summary has been altered, although it has the same basic message as the original. I want to convey very clearly here that I'm not saying that this is a bad story. Again, Friend, if you're reading this, don't feel bad.

With that being said, I want to explore this summary.

"Thomas Chase is not what you would consider popular, and he kind of likes staying out of the public eye as much as possible."

So far, Thomas sounds like my kind of guy. I don't have many friends that I'd consider my best, but the ones I do are pretty close. I don't mind being in the spotlight once in a while, but I don't really go looking for it.

"He is a normal high school kid, except that he's kind of an introvert."

Maybe I'm over-analyzing this, but to me this sort of implies that being introverted is not normal.

"What happens when he joins his high school's basketball team in freshman year and is thrust into recognition? When he gets invited to all the parties and reported on by the school newspaper? Will this introvert finally come out of his shell?"

Well. If I'm going to be honest, Thomas Chase doesn't sound like a guy that would go to parties, or appreciate constant coverage by the newspaper. If I were to make a predication, though, it sounds like by the end of this story, Thomas Chase's character will have a lot more friends, enjoy going to parties, and shed his shell.

Okay, so, I noticed that a lot of people, sometimes unintentionally, will equate introversion with underconfidance. Many stories like these will feature the "nerdy" protagonist who isn't that popular.

And then, by the end, these characters will become the complete opposite of what they were originally written as. They will morph from what people perceive as a caterpillar into a social butterfly. Then they'll become completely popular and famous.

Hey, there's nothing wrong with having goals. I'm sure that Tom made an awesome basketball player. There's nothing wrong with changing some things about yourself, but someone doesn't need validation by being thrust into the spotlight. The goal is not always to change your entire personality and be someone who you're not. Being introverted doesn't mean you're depressed or misanthropic.

I did this too. For those of you who read my story 'Flight from Reality", you may know or suspect that my main character, Courtney, is an introvert. But from one of the earlier copies of my story that I had written way back then, I noticed this sentence:

"Courtney was one of the most introverted of her peers, which led to her anxiety and rude behavior."

So yes. I did it too.

Now that I know what I know now, I'm happy with my character Courtney's introversion. Yes, she has problems, like her rudeness and lack of self confidence, but I want to be able to help her with those without erasing something that's part of her personality.

And again, an extroverted person can have traits like a lack of self confidence too.

I noticed that sometimes people will look at the word "introvert" and think of dull colors and frowning or stressed out people. To validate this, I asked a few of my friends to tell me what images had popped into their heads when I said the word "introvert" or "self-observer" and the responses I got were fairly mutual. The colors gray and black, a cloudy sky, a depressed person.

But now, when I think of the word "introvert" I tend to think of a pleasant blue, a forest, a running river, or a book. It's amazing how much your perspective on a word can change once you learn more about it.

A/N: On a bit of an unrelated note, I searched up synonyms for the word introvert and found that websites like Thesaurus.com and Merriam-Webster included words like "narcissist" and "egoist", which are self-centered people, as well as words like "autistic" and "backward" as synonyms for the word introvert.