Literary Bullies: He Was Weird, Part I- Andrew Blumenthaw

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19 Minutes, American football, books, bullying, Endgame, exclusion, He Was Weird, ice hockey, labels, school shootings, Self Esteem, soccer, sports, teasing

Andrew Blumenthaw isn’t the first bully Mark encounters in “He Was Weird” but is a significant one is his eyes. Furthermore, Andrew doesn’t bully Mark in the traditional physical way. The closest he comes to that is he threatens he’s going to punch Mark’s lights out when Mark jumps over the ball in a kick ball game and an instance where he rips up a picture that Mark brings to school. Instead, Andrew uses exclusion as his bullying tool and as I pointed out in a post a long time ago, that can be more painful than punches.

The trigger for Andrew’s bullying is during a soccer game against the other fifth grade class. Mark plays very badly in the game and that is enough evidence for Andrew to conclude that Mark sucks at all sports. When Andrew challenges the other class to a revenge American football game after school, he clearly informs Mark that he’s not playing because he’s not good enough. That is the first of many instances where he refuses to let Mark join in any games.

The only other major instance in the story is when Andrew joins up with another boy to tell some of the kids at the other school in Ramsgate about Mark’s weirdness. Together, they mention everything about Mark from his miscommunication about breaking the world’s running record to his backfired joke about his cousin playing second base for the Cincinnati Reds and even mention his incorrect answer about the height of the Statue of Liberty. Naturally, they make Mark to out to be some sort of freak, succeeding in their objective to humiliate him and while it seems harmless at the time, it does have consequences when he gets to middle school.

Like I stated, Mark suffers no physical harm at the hands of Andrew. However, Andrew’s refusal to let Mark join in erodes Mark’s self esteem. In Andrew’s eyes, Mark feels he can’t do anything right and that carries over to other people like teachers. That is why that in the climactic part of the story where Mark finally gets his revenge, Andrew receives four bullets, two of which shatter his spinal chord. What Mark doesn’t know is that Andrew does make a miracle recovery although he is wheelchair bound for the rest of his life.

There is some background on Andrew in the story that gives clues as to why he would bully Mark. It is briefly mentioned that he is the youngest of three brothers and suffers some bullying at the hands of his two older brothers. Like, Matt Royston in “Nineteen Minutes” and Zorro in “Endgame,” he is also an alpha male. He excels in both sport and academics while at the same time seems not to suffer fools, which he perceives Mark to be. That is why he picks on him and makes him feel worthless and why Mark names Andrew in his dying declaration. In it, Mark states that he is going to show Andrew something that he is really good at.

Andrew Blumenthaw was loosely based on a boy named Andrew Blumenfeld  and he treated me in a way similarly to the the character based on him treats Mark. He wouldn’t let me join in sports with his peers and did tell all about my supposed “lies.” I also know that he was the youngest of three boys and might have suffered some bullying at the hands of the his brothers and he was an alpha male but none of that matters when you’re on the receiving end of the fallout. Now he might say that he gave me a chance. He did let me briefly join in playing street hockey but that only lasted after my first mistake. It seemed like after one mistake, he thought, “Okay, you suck, get of of here.”

In the story, Mark develops a fantasy world where he is a great ice hockey player and I did the same. Very few believed my little fantasy and Andrew was a strong opponent of it. For him, it was damning proof that I was some sort of liar. What he didn’t realise that it was his treatment of me that helped me create that fantasy world.

Time does heal all wounds and if you ask, do I still hate Andrew Blumenfeld? The answer is no. Do I forgive him? In a sense yes but to obtain full forgiveness, he would have to admit his transgressions towards me and be genuinely sorry. Otherwise, that forgiveness would be hollow.

Next post: Liz Clover

To buy He Was Weird, go to: http://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1435048126&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird

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Literary School Bullies- He Was Weird, My Bullies Will Finally Be Named!

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19 Minutes, books, bullying, guns, He Was Weird, Michael D LeFevre, school shootings, schools

Now we are at the meat of the series about literary school bullies. Not only do you get to read about the many bullies who terrorize Mark throughout the entire story of “He Was Weird” and the possibility of them being given their retribution when Mark finally snaps, you get a more personal look into the bullies who plagued my life between the ages of ten and thirteen. Many of the bullies described in “He Was Weird” were the bullies who made my life such a misery during those years.

Unlike the other novels where the protagonist had one or two main bullies and possibly a few hangers on who encouraged that bully, Mark has bullies from just about everywhere. The one possible exception is Peter in “Nineteen Minutes” because he had several different bullies. For Mark, it was jocks, trouble makers and even some who may not fit neatly into a social group who bullied him. There were so many, that it is going to take several posts to go through it all and that is if I don’t include some of the one off bullies from the story. It seemed everyone thought they could have a pop at Mark and it wasn’t any wonder why he did what he did to get revenge.

The thing is that Mark’s bullies from the book were based on my bullies from real life. I wrote “He Was Weird” because I wanted to tell about my experiences from those three years of hell I went through and only ended when I moved out of that town. That’s another reason why Mark shoots up his school because he saw no escape from the torment he was going through. Thankfully for me, I did escape and it is probably good that I had no access to guns.

As I have been writing this post, I have made a bold executive decision. While I would have loved to name and shame the bullies and the town in the book, I couldn’t have done so out of fear of lawsuits. I realise that I can still be sued on the blog but only if I write something libelous. Therefore, as I examine each of the bullies from “He Was Weird,” I will name the bullies they were based on and as long as I keep how they bullied me factual, I shouldn’t have any problem.

Next post: Andrew Blumenthaw

http://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1434598658&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird

 

Literary Bullies: Rupture- Part II, The Pupil

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bullying, Great Britain, guns, He Was Weird, Rupture, school shootings, schools, Simon Lelic, teachers

In the last post, I talked about the teacher who bullied Sam Szajikowski and I mentioned that his bullying of Sam had a knock on effect with pupils who also bullied him. I have pointed out in a couple of previous posts that pupils are very capable of bullying teachers and if you would like to read further about that, then read the post: “Children Bullying Adults.” This book “Rupture” by Simon Lelic gave me plenty of material on which to write that post.

Rupture contains plenty of evidence that a good number of students bullied Sam but I am going to focus on the one who got the most mention, a pupil named Donovan Stanley. His name is mentioned throughout the story in relation to tormenting the teacher. The first occurrence is the first day when Donovan enters Sam’s classroom. He immediately begins to disrupt the lesson and encourages his friends and then the whole class to do the same. The result is that Sam is reduced to a blubbering mess.

Of course, there are other instances where Donovan openly bullies Sam. I have mentioned the most notorious incident, the breaking of Sam’s leg during the pupil/teacher football match. However, another horrific case of bullying is discovered during the police investigation. It turns out that Donovan starts something called “The Bum Blog” which is directed specifically at Sam. The blog is used to humiliate the teacher as well as direct personal attacks at him. Reading about all of these things leaves me with no wonder why Sam was on the verge of a breakdown.

Simon Lelic also pulls off a masterstroke in regards to letting the reader know more about Donovan and the fact that he is a bully. It comes when the police detective in the story interviews the parents. The detective discovers that Donovan was accused of leading an attack on a younger boy on the school bus. Donovan denies any involvement and the father of course believes his son but when you read the events that unfold, you are left nearly convinced that he definitely was involved. It turns out the father is no prime example either.

As with the other stories I have covered, Sam gets his revenge on Donovan when he enters the school one morning during an assembly and shoots him dead. Unfortunately, Sam also shoots two other pupils dead before he finally gets his prime target. When I read this, part of me wanted to cheer when the bully got his comeuppance but I know that the taking of human life isn’t the answer and that view seems to be shared by Simon Lelic in the book.

Next post: He Was Weird

To buy He Was Weird, go to: http://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1433883040&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird

 

 

Literary Bullies: Rupture- Part I, The Teacher

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bullying, Great Britain, Rupture, schools, Simon Lelic, teachers, teasing

It’s been over two weeks since I last posted and that was down to technical difficulties. My computer keyboard gave up the ghost and since my computer is under warranty, they gave me a new one for free. The problem was that I had to wait two weeks for it to be delivered. Fortunately, it’s all been sorted and I can post once again.

For those who read my series of posts “Do Teachers Encourage Bullying?” may remember in the story “Rupture” by Simon Lelic, Samuel’s biggest bully was a fellow teacher named Terrance or as he would like to be known, TJ. As soon as Samuel and TJ meet in the story, TJ takes and instant disliking to Samuel. Every chance he gets, TJ bullies Samuel. First by playing little tricks on him such as telling him that Friday is a ‘dress down’ day and that teachers can wear jeans on the day. Of course, it’s not and Samuel ends up getting in trouble with the Head.  Obviously, the tricks get crueler as the story progresses.

Definitely the worst effect TJ’s bullying has on Samuel is that the pupils pick up on it and they too make Samuel’s life hell. One way this is done is that TJ tells practically the entire student body about the instance where someone takes a dump into Samuel’s briefcase. He actively encourages pupils to disrespect Samuel and as a teacher myself, I can say that that is a very unprofessional act. The icing on the cake, however, is during the student-teacher soccer match. During the match, two pupils deliberately slide into Samuel breaking his leg. When the two pupils walk away from their now injured target. They happen past TJ who gives the two boys a nod and and a wink. It seems TJ approves of students maiming one of his fellow colleagues.

Samuel does get his revenge in the end when one day, he goes into the school during and assembly and shoots dead three pupils and a fellow teacher. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, the dead teacher is not TJ. However, when questioned about the shooting, several teachers state that they’re convinced that Samuel was actually aiming for TJ when he shot. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if he was, although Mr Lelic never makes it clear but this is not a bad thing in the story. If Samuel had shot TJ, I wouldn’t have been very sympathetic to the victim because of his constant bullying of someone who was supposed to be a colleague.

Next post: Part II- The Bullying Pupil

To buy He Was Weird, go to: http://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1433321557&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird