Raphael Nwadike In Stanley Elkin’s short story, “A Poetics for Bullies,” the main character is a bully named Push who uses the “sleight of mouth” and his courage to terrorize the school. He makes it clear that no one is free from his harassment. In the story, Elkins characterizes Push as a boy who struggles for power over others due to his feelings of loneliness and jealousy. In the opening paragraphs of the short story, the readers get a sense of what Push is all about and gets some insight into the mind of the bully (Push). Push defines his art of bullying in a bold sentence, when Push says, “I'm Push the bully, and what I hate are new kids and sissies, dumb kids and smart, rich kids, poor kids, kids who wear glasses, talk funny, …show more content…
The Declaration of Independence. "All men are created equal." That's beautiful.)” (173). This shows that Push doesn’t fit the stereotype that all bullies are dumb and heartless. This quote shows that not only is Push insightful. For him to be able to understand the Declaration of Independence and even cry shows he is actually intelligent and insightful. He is also very smart in the way that he knows exactly how to control most of the people around him, of course until he meets John Williams. Push is very different from most other bullies in that he is a smaller and weaker kid, and he seems to be much more intelligent than most kids his age. He uses his intelligence and “sleight of mouth” to gain power and affluence from his classmates. In the third paragraph, the reader sees how Push not only uses his strength but his intelligent and courage to gain power. This becomes evident when Push says,“Toughness isn't enough. You beat them up, they report you. Then where are you? I'm not even particularly strong. But what I lose in size and strength I make up in courage. I'm very brave. That's a lie about bullies being cowards underneath. If you're a coward, get out of the business.”(173).This shows that Push is courageous and doesn’t fear anybody or thing even though he is not that strong, he is still up to the
As a young boy Barnes was “introverted and shy” (p. 8). He wasn’t able to fight like the other young boys his age, and quickly became a punching bag for bullies. The after school brawls became so severe that Barnes’ mother asked his principal to allow him to leave school fifteen minutes early everyday. After viewing the extent of Barnes’ bruises, the principal had no choice but to comply. On the other hand, once the other children learned that Barnes could draw they no longer laughed and made fun of him, “They just watched [him draw] in silent awe” (p. 8).
““Well, they had a point. You are fat and disgusting!” The therapist announced. Patricia was sobbing, eyes red and nose runny...“Come on… Let’s go. We aren’t putting up with that!” her father...opened the door and ushered the family through. The therapist just observed and no more was heard from him…[Her nervous breakdown] was a result of long term bullying leading to an episode of being run out of school by a gang of boys. They threatened to kill her with a crowbar, sticks and wooden planks. She felt like a hunted fox” (shazwellyn.hubpages.com). No matter how hard a parent might try to help their child, whether they’re being bullied or are the bully, the consequences should not fall on the people who raise them because the victims have to do what they can to make up for what they’ve done or what they’ve suffered. The city of Monona, Wisconsin has proposed a new law that tickets and fines the parents for failing to respond properly to their child’s poor behavior. A behavioral and personal change consulting specialist, Mr. Michael Harmann, hypothesized that bullying behavior is typically an effort to cover up the bully's own vulnerability. It's a primitive mindset that wants to make you pay when you show vulnerability and since bullying mostly occurs under the legal age, that’s enough to say that higher levels of authority don’t have control over the thoughts and actions that bullies use as an outlet for their own pain because it goes against the Constitution. The key to helping the children we feel so sorry for is to heal the bully before he turns into a monster and the only way to help the perpetrator is to make him face his motivation to bully. “If you think about it, a great strategy to avoid being rejected is to reject everyon...
Larson uses this metaphor to send a message that the ruthless drive to succeed is harmful to the wellbeing of a civilization. The direction in which Larson is “pushing the world” towards is away from materialism and power. He views ambition as destructive to the morality of the people it inhabits, and to the people affected by those goal-obsessed civilians. Larson’s ironic statements and comparing and contrasting of people and places serve to show that you cannot have immense fame, power, and success without
To summarize, the use of emotion, credibility and reasoning by Sally Thomas clearly and successfully argues that a boy is rough by nature and not violent given a war toy. The sequential use of reasoning, range of authority, and use of emotions in the article made the readers get into the character of a boy and truly understand the points Thomas was making. It is important to study the true cause and effects of violence on boys and act accordingly for fair and peaceful society. Thomas writes the article in order to make the readers realize the true fact behind the violence of boys so maybe people might make the right decision against the roughness.
There are many forms of cruelty. One form that many can relate to is bullying. Whether having been bullied or been the one bullying others, those cruel memories can forever be imprinted on one’s heart. In “White Lies,” Erin Murphy, expresses that although bullying is wrong, trying to justify bad deeds for good is equally cruel. Using rhetorical and tonal elements, Murphy stirs emotions with pathos, “perhapsing” with logos, and vivid images with diction.
The word “bullying” can be defined as the use of superior strength or influence to intimidate someone, typically to force him or her to do what one wants. In the novel Nineteen Minutes, written by Jodi Picoult, the high school students prove the definition to be true. The forms and effects of bullying have no real limit, but are always going to be negative. Children, or even adults being bullied is extremely common, and can often get out of hand. A lot of the times there nothing is done to prevent bullying, which is a huge mistake that should be corrected as soon as it could be. Through the extremely emotion filled novel, Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult goes deep into the face of a small town to find out what it means to be truly different in society. Jodi Picoult uses the social issue of teenage bullying to create a realistic story about the effects of verbal and physical abuse, leading to a tragedy for society. This novel is a great example of how bullying no only affects the people who are involved, but many others as well. Bullying in teenage children not only has an effect on themselves and their peers, but on society as whole.
In September of this year there was a school shooting in Washington and the suspect, who was a sophomore, wanted to teach the school a lesson about bullying. The authors state “Bullied children are shamed on a regular basis, and psychologists have long known there is a strong causal link between shame and violence (Gilligan,1997)... and There’s only so much torment and humiliation bullied children can take before many resort to lashing out in return” (Twenge et al., 2003). There have been many cases where bullied victims shoot up schools because they have been humiliated too many times and want to retaliate to release their anger and feelings. Victims of bullying resort to violence against their school because they had enough of being teased at, friends leaving them, and not being felt cared about so this leads to extreme violence costing lives of many innocent
The documentary film Bully (2011) – directed by Lee Hirsh – takes the viewer into the lives of five families that live in various, predominantly remote, towns across the United States. All families presented have been affected by bullying, either because their child was at the time being bullied by peers at school or the child committed suicide due to continuous bullying. The film also profiles an assistant principle, Kim Lockwood, whose indiscreetness makes the viewer...
...and Boo Radley as an example of how discrimination against others can ruin not only people’s lives but even society’s. Tom being discriminated because of his skin color and is falsely convicted. Boo is relentlessly being judged by others and having his name used in a bad way. Both characters are outcasts; Boo is a micro-version of Tom. Boo is an outcast to the neighborhood whereas Tom is an outcast to society. Using this book, Lee illustrates different variations of racism and how malicious it is to a person. In today’s day and age, racism is slowly declining, but there is still a long way to go. Wars are being fought due to discrimination and it is an in just thing to do. No person should have to experience the hardships and cruelty that racism gives. Society has to decide when discrimination will cease to exist, and once that happens, the world will be at peace.
In this paper, I will discuss two different magazine articles on how to deal with bullies and two scholarly research articles. One of the research articles discusses mental health and suicide issues that may be caused from being bullied. The other article discusses how schools use different strategies that can be effective or not effective in stopping bullying.
Bullying has both short term and long effects on the victim. A victim of someone who has been bullied for so long can lead to them bullying other individuals, making this a never-ending cycle. "Bu...
A bully is someone who picks on other people, because they think it is the way to solve their problems. There are many types of bullying, there is physical, verbal, and mental. Children that are ages five through eleven began using verbal abuse and some even use physical abuse (Garrett 33). People estimated that one hundred and sixty thousand students miss school every day, and twenty-eight million missed school days per year, due to fear of being bullied (Garrett 36). Six million boys and four million girls are involved in fights from being bullied or bullying others (Garrett 33). Also, there is an estimate that over five hundred and twenty-five thousand people are bullies in America (Garrett 35). “Freshman, particularly are the victims of bullies in high school, especially if they are small and smart” (Garrett 31-32). Many people are bullied because of the way they look, or the way they act.“ Children from violent homes are three or four times more likely to become a bully” (Garrett 30). Some bullies may make fun of people because they were made fun of, beaten, or unwanted as they grew up. Most children become bullies to gain power (Verial). Bullies do what they do so they “feel competent, successful, to control someone else, to get some relief from their own feelings of powerlessness” (Garrett 72).When children grow up they may become bullies, because of the abusive environment they were raised in by their parents.
All around the word there have been many cases of bullying, some that were prevented and some that ended in a tragedy such as death. The song “Mean,” by Taylor Swift is effective in using metaphor, similes, and symbolism to promote the prevention of bullying by letting everyone know to never let anyone push you around and to always stand up for your self. This song was written because, Taylor swift herself was bullied by Bob Lefsetz, a critic who heard her song, "did Taylor Swift kill her career overnight?…Taylor 's too young and dumb to understand the mistake she made.” This are the types of comments that can cause a person to feel worthless and untalented. We can see that no matter what age you are there’s always the possibility of getting
It only takes one bad experience to change your opinion on something. Imagine if you went through this same bad experience for months, or better yet years. Your whole personality, how you view yourself, and others changes drastically. This is what it feels like to be bullied. Bullying is a serious issue in America, especially among children and young adults. From kindergarten all the way up until my sophomore year of high school, I was a victim of bullying. Being bullied changed how I viewed myself and others, what my values and morals were, and it shaped me into the person I am today.
Children are bullied for thousands of reasons, none of them are valid (Hile [pg. 26]). There aren’t any causes that puts a child at risk of being a bully or being bullied by others. It can happen anywhere in any city, town, or suburb. It also can depend on the environment, such as upon groups of gays, ...