The Invisible Scars: Stigma and Identity in Ellen Marie Wiseman’s The Life She Was Given

Abstract

Discrimination is a universal issue that is detrimental for the victims, the social cohesion, the economy and also the perpetrators themselves. On close analysis, one can find that discrimination follows ‘stigma’ which can be considered as the root cause for the foretold social evil. Stigma mutates the individual with an identity that is often forcefully inflicted upon them. This in turn changes the social identity of the stigmatized which is unequitable. Though studies have been made on stigma by various scholars, it remains to be an unending social, political and psychological barrier that infests the various social structures like country, race, gender, religion and so on. Thus, the need to approach, analyse and confront stigma which furthermore leads to its correspondence with identity and ways to defend it. This paper does the same by analysing Ellen Marie Wiseman's novel The Life She Was Given to bring forth a tackle mechanism for stigmatization that further leads to ‘enhanced identity’.