Why Are People Pressed?

extraterrestrial_ July 21, 2023 1:00 pm

Why are people pressed that she complains about the hand she's been dealt in life?

She's a child, with a neglectful Mother, and because of that neglect she has to manage school, a job, paying bills and rent, which is something her MOTHER should be doing. Shinra never complains, she thinks about it, sure, because that's her life but she's trying to move forward and survive for something better, she wants to make her life something more than it is right now for the future.
And when this rich brat is like "uR iNtErEsTiNg" bc he saw her eat food off the floor bc she was literally starving, do you expect her to just be okay with that? From her perspective, do you have any idea how insulting that is, for some rich rando to say that, when she's struggling to make ends meet and he's just all casual about it because she's poor and 'interesting' and he's just BORED. get bent. Her anger in that scene is and was totally justified.

Not to mention putting up with sexual harassment at work, again, things no one should ever have to go through in a work place. And it's awful because she's already thought about this before and what would happen if she were to report her manager. i.e. she quits leaving her with no paycheck that she needs for necessities. Which she explains, but Blondie still says that she should quit. And as much as I hate to say it, we all have things we don't like about our workplace, sometimes it is a handsy co-worker/manager, sometimes it's the pay, sometimes is just the working conditions, but we all make sacrifices, and I don't mean that "Oh we're martyrs or something for putting up with work bullshit" far from it, it shouldn't have to be that way, and it's so sad that she understands these things when she shouldn't have to, just like she shouldn't have to make those sacrifices at such a young age, but again. "I quit/don't work" = I don't eat or pay bills. This is her pov, and if being able to eat and pay bills means dealing with sexual harassment, she's already made her point very clear that she wouldn't quit in Ch 1.(which is not something I approve of, but given her circumstances and the criteria for jobs, i.e. one not requiring signature of parent/guardian, it is unfortunately understandable why she stays at her job, and explains as much)

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Now onto the point of her mother. Like I said, her mother is neglectful, there's no denying that. But in ch. 2, we see Shinra think "I probably want someone to be kind to me". Her whole life she's been fed kindness in scraps. How does this connect to her mother? Our first impression of the relationship between Shinra and her mother, is that she's constantly upset with her mother for not being there for her, which is valid, but because she's so starved for any kindness or affection, when we see the mother show up, despite Shinra lecturing her, we also see how happy she is that her mother is back home, and is so pleased that she won't be alone now. There was this study that a baby monkey, if it's been orphaned will cling to the nearest thing, I forgot the whole entirety of the study, but I remember that part at least. Shinra is literally clinging to these little bits of affections she has with her mom, she cherishes the time she can spend with her Mom. She even looks happy when she tells Rai, that her mom came back home. And the point I'm trying to make is not that her mom is a good person/parent or whatever, that's not it at all. What I'm trying to say is that her mother's way of disappearing without any word and then reappearing and being all affectionate and sweet, only to drop off the map, has set the standard for what Shinra bases her expectations for the way people treat her kindly. Which is the barest minimum. Look, not all parents deserve kids, but all children deserve (good)parents.

Her Mother literally gives the barest shits about her kid, always these empty promises and statements of how all she needs is Shinra after a break up, only to then leave again when a new man or an old ex shows up. Can you imagine growing up in such a contradictory environment? "You're all I need, I'm going to stop dating" "Oh wait, I gotta GO, I just got a new boyfriend" That's the type of "kindness/affection" she knows. there one moment, gone the next. Which is why she is so distrustful of the trio. First Rai makes it seem like she's just amusement to ease his boredom, the next he's trying to be helpful.

For her, this is unknown territory, and she only see's it and trusts it as "the rich frolicking with the poor", that makes sense, and then when he show's up being all serious about wanting to be friends or for her to at least take advantage of the help the trio can giver her, she's still wary, bc seriously tf? It's a lot for a child who really has no healthy understanding of what "kindness" is. Which is terribly sad, no child should go through that. Which is why when she admits that she wanted someone to be kind to her, it's a big step in her recognizing that the scraps of affection from her mother were in fact not 'real kindness'. Which is why I really like Kanan Nakamura, he may be part of the trio, but his actions to me were more genuine. Though I can begrudgingly admit that it was Rai's intervention that led to that tearful eating food scene in Ch. 2, which also lead to Shinra deciding to use them as a means of survival.

and at the behest of Rai, when Nagisa comes or something, she accepts Nagisa's kindness, because like I said before and suspect, she doesn't know what real kindness is. She can't tell when someone is being deceptive. Which is some thing you'd think she'd know, since she has been taking care of herself for so long, but alas that is not the case.
Shinra wasn't deceived by her pervert manager, it was clear what he was doing, despite his weak attempt at gaslighting by saying "oh I don't see you as a girl don't worry" literally no one bought that, and neither did she. But Nagisa was sly, she made it seem like she was helping her out with the make-up first and that made Shinra happy, so when Nagisa brought the sugar-daddy thing up, even though Shinra was cautious about it bc of what she heard about it being not safe and such, Nagisa spun this entire thing of how she "had a lot of friends that also did it, it'll be fine, don't worry, here, I'll even help you" which, I mean, just sounds like another fellow student trying to help her out, even if Shinra wasn't too sure about the whole thing. She thought Nagisa was just being nice or "kind" because she doesn't know better.

She IS naive when it comes to affairs with other people, she doesn't really interact with people because she never felt the need to, but she's started to change in the name of survival, bc she realized that she can't do this alone, hence her entire thing of taking the trio's offer on them helping her.

So back to what I was trying to say at the beginning. I believe that Shinra has the right to fucking complain about her situation, so excuse her for actually finding people she can bitch about it to. She literally has never done it before, imagine how relieving it is for her to actually talk about it, even if she's frustrated with the Richies. And I find it fascinating to read comments complaining about the fact that she's self deprecating or something, bc I don't think she really is, or I don't see it as a bad thing, I say let it out y'know.

And to clarify, I'm not a psychologist or anything of the sort, I just know things from my own life experience, this is purely my opinion of what I think of Shinra's situation and story so far. And that aside, I really like this manga so far, I can't wait to see where things go from here.
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I feel like some of my points may not have been conveyed as clearly as I wanted them to be, and that some of them may be a reach in certain aspects, then again some may be correct, but yeah. Feel free to comment or give constructive criticism.
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Responses
    Sweetchestnut21 September 10, 2023 11:43 am

    Yup I agree. Reading this I was so mad at the mom fuvk can't even call her that. And because the Mc has never had anyone to protect her she of course always has her guard and the only thing she could try to protect was her own pride too.

    FlipJupiter September 12, 2023 12:18 pm

    love ur thoughts!!
    I agree in why the MC is like that