Harmon's Brutal Thesis

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A Truly Inspirational Story Michael Harmon’s Brutal is an exciting and intriguing anti-bullying novel that conveys a strong message to the readers. In 2009, Harmon published this novel with a great story line in mind. With insightful, spot-on dialogues and a swiftly placed plot, Harmon delivers the story of a displaced girl grappling with a dangerous bully. As her mother went to South America, Poe Holly landed on the doorstep of the dad she never met before. In order to cope up with each other, they spent time together, most of which included having fights. On the first day at Benders High, Poe discovered that her neighbor, Velveeta was bullied by the school’s football star, Colby Morris! Things started to get worse. Velveeta got beat up …show more content…

Her self-confidence and sassiness all contribute to her going against the authorities and her inability to be a bystander. I found her to be unbelievable sometimes because her self-confidence and the rudeness she shows to her father are very rare. “ ‘ I saw a guy who lives alone and is lonely. I see you trying to be fake… a dad who didn’t have anything to with his daughter’s life.’ ”(Harmon 20). Colby Morris is the antagonist of this story. A star football player who likes to bend the laws to get away with anything that he does wrong, especially …show more content…

Bullying! It shows the consequences of bullying and what might the victim feel when nobody takes a stand against it. With a great storyline, Harmon conveyed this message efficiently while giving many examples of bullying; One of them being “Velveeta curled up in a fetal position under the far sink… Colby Morris, kicking and stomping him… Over and over and over, so fast that his legs looked like a piston.” (Harmon 142) Brutal is set in the small town of Benders Hollow, California. After Poe’s mother left her, the only option she had was to live with her father. “The main avenue of Benders Hollow was full of wine and gift shops, high-end restaurants and a few clothes stores…”(Harmon 24). A major part of this book is also set in the Benders high school. Poe described it as “There were six hundred students at Benders High… With an open campus and five buildings rose above the rest… they’d built the school three years earlier…”(Harmon

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