God, I just realized this title sounds like I’m about to give a university lecture. Trust me, I’m not. As a result of last week’s post, inspired by Chateau Cherrie, I’ve decided to look at socio- economic factors in bullying through the medium of books I read when I was writing my book, “He Was Weird.” Admission and I admitted it to some of the authors: I read a lot of these books to make sure I wasn’t accused of plagiarism when my own work was completed.
The first book I’ll look at is “Nineteen Minutes” by well known author Jodi Picoult. A quick synopsis of the book: Set in the town of Sterling, New Hampshire, we meet Peter Houghton, a boy who gets so badly bullied from his first day in Kindergarten through to high school that he eventually snaps and shoots up his school, killing ten and wounding eight. Peter is arrested, tried and convicted and sentenced to life without parole. He later commits suicide in prison.
In the story, Sterling is a small rural town, the type where everyone knows everyone else’s business, or so they think. The town’s rural setting provides a lot of opportunities for hunting. Peter’s father is a hunter and this provides Peter with access to guns for the big day, although he stole his main gun of choice. Like so many small towns in the US, it is under the influence of the richer, more powerful families who reside there. Thus, it provides an avenue for spoiled rich kids to throw around their brute privilege on the lesser mortals. One such bully to arise from this setting is Courtney Ignatio who uses her ‘privilege’ to bully and humiliate Peter.
Peter doesn’t exactly come from the ‘poor side of town.’ His father is a university lecturer, mother is a midwife. Therefore, the Houghton’s enjoy a pretty decent standard of living. However, it doesn’t stop the bullying Peter receives.
While it didn’t matter at the time, I don’t remember any mention in the story of Matt Royston’s socio-economic circumstances. He is Peter’s chief bully. What we do know is that Matt is the school’s star ice hockey player and a total alpha-male. He uses his athletic prowess and his popularity in school as his catalyst for bullying Peter. This brings me to the point about many schools in America. They might not admit it but many high schools do push sports over learning and treat the jocks as molly-coddled gods. This is why Matt is able to bully without impunity and being an alpha-male, encourages his friends to bully Peter too.
In conclusion: bullies can arise from anywhere, that’s a given. In the case of Sterling, it’s a small close-minded community, (the homosexual Math teacher had to stay in the closet), where the rich and athletic are treated like Gods and have carte blanche in throwing around their brute privilege. Thus, it’s a great breeding ground for bullies.
Next post: Endgame
To buy He Was Weird, go to: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Was-Weird-Publisher-Generation-Publishing/dp/B00SLVHRFG/ref=sr_1_1?crid=36I8I1G32U0R4&dchild=1&keywords=he+was+weird&qid=1602500551&s=books&sprefix=he+was+%2Cstripbooks%2C148&sr=1-1