Bullies are people who purposely hurt other people, whether physically or emotionally. Some people verbally abuse others, and some threaten people for money. Several famous authors have written short stories about bullying and discrimination. Four such works include The Fan Club by Rona Maynard, Tuesday of the other June by Norma Fox Mazer, Priscilla and the Wimps by Richard Peck, and Don’t let the Bedbugs Bite by Ellen Conford. In The Fan Club, Laura, the narrator, stands up for a girl named Rachel who was bullied because of her background, but joins her classmates in humiliating Rachel due to heavy peer pressure. In Tuesday of the other June, the narrator and main character, named June, was bullied by a girl with the same name in swimming class. Her mother discouraged her from fighting back, but she stood up for herself and got the other June in trouble. In Priscilla and the Wimps, the main antagonist, Monk Klutter, essentially controls the school with his gang, Klutter’s Kobras. However, his grip was challenged by a girl named Priscilla, who was stronger and defeated him in a fight, shoving him in a locker. In Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite, Sally was bullied in school by another girl named Tina, but the two reconciled with each other when their single parents married each other.
Bullies usually have several reasons to harass others, most often poverty, race, appearance, or because of their own childhood trauma. In The Fan Club, much of Laura’s class bullied Rachel due to her family’s poverty and her last name. In fact, when Rachel was giving a presentation in class, the others snickered, and said that she probably got her props “from Woolworth’s”. In Tuesday of the other June, June was bullied for similar reasons. Her mother was poor and was single. Some of her classmates mockingly joked that June’s mother probably “got that bathing suit from the garbage dump”. The main reasons though, were because she had the same name as somebody else and that she was discouraged repeatedly by her mother from fighting back. In Priscilla and the Wimps, Monk Klutter used his gang to bully the whole school, and the point was to extort them of money. They would charge fees for simply walking through the hallways or force peers to hand over a cut of their lunch money to access the cafeteria. In Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite, Tina had the same motives(money and belongings), but she did it all by herself instead of with a gang.
There are multiple ways bullies get their way, usually by intimidation or outright using their strength. In The Fan Club, a large group of people bullied a single person. Laura tells us that there was a highly exclusive group in her class that would specifically target Rachel due to her background and ethnicity. They would bully their target via humiliation or mocking. In Tuesday of the other June, there was one bully and one victim, and the other June would use brute force to get June to comply. In Priscilla and the Wimps, it was one group bullying the entire school. Although mostly nobody got hurt, the bullies would still get their way since they were much stronger than anybody else in the school, except for Priscilla, that is. Monk mostly ran his empire from behind the scenes and as the narrator put it “Monk never touched money in public”. In Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite, it was just one person against the whole school. Tina, the bully, would use the same tactics as Monk Klutter. However, she did go after a wide range of things, such as money, pencils, and etc.
Much of the time, bullying is caused by familial problems, either on the victim or the aggressor's side. The most notable example was Tuesday of the other June, where June was raised by a single mother who was poor, and therefore, did not seek more trouble. June’s mother repeatedly discouraged her from fighting back. In the beginning, she told June to “turn the other cheek and smile at the world, and the world will surely smile back”. Apparently, that’s not what happened and June became a target for the other June in swimming class. In The Fan Club, Rachel was bullied by her classmates because of her family background. Her family came from eastern Europe and was poor, which was emphasized during her presentation when the rest of the class snickered that she probably got it at Walmart, which was supposed to be an insult. Sometimes though, familial issues can cause someone to become a bully instead of being bullied. In Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite, Tina had childhood trauma when her mother abandoned her and her father, which possibly influenced her decisions and caused her to bully others.
Bullying is a serious problem in schools. It can stem from a wide range of issues, such as race, poverty, or trauma. There are several notable narratives that discuss bullying. In The Fan Club, Rachel, a girl whose parents were from eastern Europe, was bullied because her family was poor and also due to her last name. In Tuesday of the other June, June encountered another girl in swimming class with the same name, who proceeded to pinch her repeatedly and tried to force her to use another name. In Priscilla and the Wimps, a gang of bullies controlled the school and was led by Monk Klutter, who extorted countless people for money. In Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite, Sally was bullied in school by a girl named Tina, but the two reconciled with each other when their single parents married each other. From reading these stories, we can tell that most cases of bullying are caused by familial problems or childhood trauma. In the first and second stories, bullying occurred because of the victim’s background. In the fourth, Tina bullied people because her mother abandoned her when she was young. This shows that bullying has a wide range of causes and effects.
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