Rion's problem in social mingling, was it because of him or his mother?

[Akintola Ola]

I think it would be quite inaccurate to attribute his recluse tendencies to his mother. Rion's personality aside, he was also conditioned by his experiences and by being constantly mobile. Of course, this is not to add the fact that his special ability made him feel different. That could be a psychologically bad place to be but he was not the only one with special ability after all.

[Suzer6440 xyz]

The moving around so much is the obvious cause of his lack of mingling and friendships. Rooms mother is the reason of the constant schleping from one place to another. So I have a hard time thinking Rioms socialization issues were his fault. I can only imagine how hard it is to make friends when his constant location was changing

[Sushan Ekanayake]

In truth, at times our environments and upbringing affect our social lives. However, this is so only to a certain extent. In Rion's case, the line has been crossed. We cannot blame the mother. This one is totally up to him. It's his nature.

Seemingly it is his problem. But his mother too shows a withdrawn nature. She does not show much intentions in bonding with the boy. Being a fatherless child Rion does not get much care from his mother though she loves him and protects him. Maybe he is unaware of how a close relationship can be useful and helpful at times, so he is not trying to make any connections.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I don't think that one who is often moving, would bother making friends. When you move away from your friends it hurts. So to avoid such pain he dosen't bother making new friends.

Rion never mentions of his frequent movement with pain or regret. He is simply used to it. So he should have been used to getting parted from friends and familiar environments. One can have short term friends and that makes their stay and work more comfortable. But seemingly Rion does not care for that at all and loves to remain alone. His loneliness seems more because of his introverted nature than the frequent moving.

[Muskan Upadhyaya]

In my opinion, we can't completely blame his mother or himself for his introvert nature. He always had an opportunity to step out of his comfort zone and socialize with people. However, his mother should be more open to him so that there won't be any lack of conversation or bridge which leads him to be an introvert child

[Christine Onyango 1]

Personally, I feel like all the factors that you have mentioned contributed to his lonesome behavior. So an introverted personality, constant change of environment and his distant mother to an extent contributed to this. It is already hard that one is an introvert and making friends is quite a problem, but imagine going through the trouble of forming bonds and then leaving them behind, and then repeat, I'd say he found it convenient not to. However, no man is an island and even the introverts themselves need some companionship and we can see Rion's own struggles with this.

[Michael Jerry_]

i believe that despite moving so much that if he was an extrovert he’d have made friends. he wasn’t trying to make any friends. However his introverted behavior may have come about from either moving a lot or not having a strong relationship with his mother.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

Changing of schools and the environment as a whole may be a factor responsible for Rion being a lonely fellow but a support system like his mum or teacher at school would have assisted him to gain some courage and the attitude he needed to overcome the challenge.

I don't think a teenager needs any assistance from his family or teachers to make new friends. One can be a less forward fellow, but a few days is enough to make new friends. Seemingly Rion has chosen to isolate himself by even sitting at the back corner, looking out the window, clearly refusing any contact. So others may have left him be alone, and it has made him forever alone.

An introvert if he/she get a support system like classroom teachers may understand the essence and advantage of mingling with others in an environment especially a new one. More so, it doesn't matter where he sits or not, a support system may help pull them out of their shell.

We cannot expect such a support system from his fellow students who are also teenagers. We see how others simply ridiculed him despite he giving no attention or care for them. Though his teachers were interested in his knowledge and ideas, and Dee came forward to befriend with him, seemingly nothing was enough to pull him out of his loneliness, atleast at the beginning.

[sophiaabigail]

I think that having special powers caused him the problems and made him fear that other people will see him as a stranger. His mothers bpm counter failure to motivate and talk to him about his powers also caused this.

[Oye Timothy]

I think the three questions are the reasons why Rion turned out like that. It could be his nature. Yes. Because he's an introvert naturally. Mother's frequent change of location? Yes too. Changing location exposes teenagers to new adventures and environment. This might contribute to his muteness and reservedness.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I think the fact that his mother was so closed off was certainly the main reason why Rion didn't like to meet or talk to people. Rion's mother was pretty much the only constant in his life up until the start of the book, and if she didn't open up to anyone, of course Rion would follow that example growing up. It became part of who he was, too.

Rion's mother had her own reasons to be less open with her kid, amd she did that out of love and purely to protect him. But she missed to understand that Rion needed her as a friend and a fatherly figure too as he had never known his father. Maybe if she could play that role Rion would have been more close to her and eventually would have been a bit more socially active fellow.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I think it's both, his mother for making him move so much he kind of established the idea that he is not gonna stay long so why bother making friends he is gonna loose in a few months and eventually miss them ND be hurt, however he can socialize with people ND have them not be his friends he can talk ND chat and meet people with out getting too attached to be sad when it's the time for him to leave

I did not see Rion as a dependant kid or a one who attached with his close ones deeply. Even he did not care for or loved his own mother a lot. What he loved the most was being idle. Yes, as you said, he could have just chat with people for the sake of social interactions but nothing more. But he chose to be alone because it was his nature.

[Khushboo Barwar]

We can’t just pinpoint one thing on this matter. Firstly, Rion is an introvert so he is not very good at socialising on his own. In today’s world we see teenagers hanging out in groups, not very are fond of knowing someone one on one. Shifting from one place to another too contributed to him not being able to make friends. I think the realisation that those friendships would be temporary and the parting would hurt too bad made Rion held back even more. Plus, we can’t ignore the fact that his behaviour could have been shaped because of the protective nature of his mother too.

[britcott30]

I think since he already knows his power makes him want to hide it from everything, including his mother and his friends. He doesn't want other people to think that he is some kind of freak or something.

[havillah108]

Rion's loneliness was exacerbated, in my opinion, by his mother's refusal to be open to his son. It had a bad impact on his perception of himself and his abilities. He felt that he was part of a failed or successful experiment. He didn't think he looked like his mother, and he always got the impression she looked at him with a wounded expression. Rion also recalls what happened in the third and fifth grades, when he inadvertently hurt his peers. Another reason he stayed to himself could be that he didn't want to hurt others again. So, I believe his personality contributed to his loneliness, but his mother's character of not being honest with him contributed the most.