Allison's Story of Standing Up - Breaking the Shackles of Societal Pressure

Running head: ALLISON’S STORY OF STANDING UP
ALLISON’S STORY OF STANDING UP
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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ALLISON’S STORY OF STANDING UP
The female, the weaker gender, the subordinate gender, the softer gender – these
attributes are mostly used to define the women and the girls. This is the story of Allison, who
found the courage to stand up to her family and break the shackles of societal pressure.
When the tiny droplets of the rain touched her face, Allison was transported back to ten
years back when the journey of her extraordinary struggle began. She reminisced about her
childhood years of rain and the joy of drenching completely after playing with the army of tiny
droplets.
Coming from a humble background, Allison, a 14 year-old girl, had always been a girl
filled with imagination. Allison was different from others in her family. She loved music and
painting. Allison had a loving elder sister, Leena, her Ma and Pa. However, the family had some
financial constraints and considered marrying the girls as a burden. Leena, her elder sister had
attained the ‘age of marriage’ as per their community’s standards and her parents were busy
looking for a prospective groom for her. However, Leena’s facial features were such that most
guys used to reject her. Leena was but a girl with strong self-respect and extremely talented and
thus cared little about rejections. Allison was too young to think about all this, as she was happy
in her own world. She used to go to school with friends and had many male friends as well. She
rather had a ‘gang’. She also had a strong bond with her elder sister whom she used to address as
‘Li’ and her elder sister used to call her ‘Alli’. Her gang had both boys and girls of her age and
they used to admire Allison for her painting skills. She also had a great sense of humor. Her
friends learnt about it when they used to visit her house during holidays.
Her life was moving along quite happily until one day, everything changed. The fun-
loving, talented girl was turned into a machine, a robot that was just meant to take orders and
perform tasks. Her ordeal began on the night when her family had invited other families of their
community to dinner. For Allison, it was just the usual tradition of her community to come
together and enjoy establishing stronger bonds. She soon realized that it was meant for Li who
had to choose and be chosen by the men who had come to dine with them. The feast went on
well and all the prospective grooms had a chance to look at Leena and decide if she was worth
their commitment. In the meanwhile, Allison was happy serving the guests and helping her
mother. In addition, Allison even entertained the guests with her singing. However, there were a
few things that Allison noticed which made her slightly uneasy. She was 14 so she had a little

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ALLISON’S STORY OF STANDING UP
idea of what is a good or a bad look and a good touch or a bad touch. Anyways, the dinner was
over or rather the ‘test’ for Leena was over and then came the time for the judgment. Leena told
her parents that she was not impressed by any of the men that had come to dinner. It was later
revealed that none of the men chose Leena either. In the meantime, Allison entered the
discussion and heard some of Li’s comments. She hugged Li and said, “None of those filthy-
looking ‘uncles’ could have suit you”. ‘I would never even think of marrying any of those”, she
then added.
Days passed and one rainy night, Allison’s mother received a call from some unknown
number. Both sisters anxiously looked at their mother but could not comprehend the matter. The
mother had strange reaction to the phone call and the daughters were trying hard to guess from
her expression but to no avail.
When their father asked who was it and what was the matter, the mother replied, “They
want to marry our daughter”. Hearing this, the father was ecstatic but Leena and Allison did not
look happy. Leena did not like any of the men and Allison did not want to lose her Li. The
mother instructed Allison to go to her room and sleep, Allison obliged but she was feeling
strangely curious and anxious. She went to her room but was feeling restless and decided to
listen secretly to her Ma and Li’s conversation. Allison tippy toed towards the wall of her room
and rested the side of her face gently against the wall while her eyes rotated from one corner to
the other. She could not clearly understand the words her Ma was saying but managed to hear
Leena’s voice as thankfully she was close enough to hear. Allison first heard Leena say,
“Allison?” and then heard, “You think she deserves to marry now, she is too young”. Allison’s
mouth dropped wide open and she could not believe whatever she just heard. Her eyes stretched
wide and she almost went blank. She pressed her ears harder against the wall and hoped dearly
that she heard it wrong. Her act was disturbed by the heavy footsteps coming towards her room.
She leapt onto her bed and covered herself with the blanket.
Allison was burning inside as a storm of panic suddenly hit her. Her face had turned red
as she was fuming with anger. She had the idea that she had no chance with her parents, let alone
the society. Next day she woke up feeling heavy but without a soul. She felt that all her spirits
had suddenly vanished and that she does not want to stay with her family anymore. She even
developed the idea of committing suicide. As she was engrossed in her thoughts, the tiny