Bullying In Chris Crutcher's Whale Talk

503 Words2 Pages

Over 67% of students believe that schools respond poorly to bullying, with a high percentage of students believing that adult help is infrequent and ineffective. Through the book the obvious theme to me is bullying. The author of this book Chris Crutcher is a very talented author. He has many books that are very good but has only earned one award. “Whale talk” has a main theme about bullying and it shows it through many characters and the mental and physical effect it has on people.

Rich Marshall has made a name for himself in cutter high school for being notorious for being a jock and a bully. He tells his stepdaughter every day that she is the “wrong color”. It gets so bad that she has to go to therapy because of the way he treats …show more content…

Chris Coughlin is one of many students at cutter high school that is affected by bullying. It started when Chris wore his brothers' letter jacket to school and mike Barbour an antagonist in the book threatened him if he wore that jacket again he would burn it. The jacket to me stands as a symbol in this novel. It stands for the people who are outcast in the school and it shows people are worth more than just some jacket.

In this novel, Rich Marshall who is also an antagonist meets a woman who has an African American kid who he mentally bullies so bad that she thinks she is the “wrong color”.
One day Rich told her to scrub it off and she used a brillo pad to try to scrub her skin off. As she came out of TJ’s kitchen her arm was covered and blood she says “guys look it worked”. She said it in such a tone that she sounded excited when asked who told her to do this she said “daddy Rich”. In the modern society bullying is a big problem at almost every school around the world. At culler middle school a kid is mentally bullied until it got taken to the next level one day after school when she was physically pulled down by her by another student. No one should be treated this way especially when they are very nice and caring

Show More
Related

  • Richard Wright's Native Son

    561 Words  | 2 Pages

    The book Native Son by Richard Wright is about an African American man growing up in the south. The main character Bigger Thomas often finds himself in trouble throughout his life from the beginning to the end. The author uses his views and thoughts through Bigger about American society. Bigger worked for a rich man named Mr. Dalton and had “accidentally” murdered his daughter Mary. As a result of that a domino effect of misfortune began to happen. Bigger was later arrested and put on trial because of his actions I felt like I was watching a man sinking through quicksand and with every movement or attempt to free himself making the situation worst. He only murder because fear of getting caught in her room, a white woman’s room. Mary was drunk and the Dalton’s would have thought Bigger was trying rape her or something. It was very distressing that Mary had to die but Bigger was only doing what he thought at the time was right.

    Read More

  • Comparing Black Boy And Jon Krakauer's Black Boy And Chris Mccandless

    1255 Words  | 3 Pages

    Black Boy tells the story of Richard Wright, a boy growing up in the south and facing innumerable struggles due to his race and personality. Richard’s goal is to complete school and earn enough money to move north for a better life. At home, he is constantly facing verbal and physical abuse from his aunt, uncle, and grandmother. Richard’s best

    Read More

  • Prejudice in "King of the Bingo Game"

    949 Words  | 2 Pages

    The main character is completely alienated from the world around him. He is a black man living in a white world, a man who was born in the South but is now living in the North, and his only form of companionship is his dying wife, Laura, whom he is desperate to save. He is unable to work since he has no birth certificate—no official identity. Without a job he is unable to make his mark in the world, and if his wife dies, not only would he lose his lover but also any evidence that he ever existed. As the story progresses he loses his own awareness of his identity—“somehow he had forgotten his own name.” The author emphasizes the main character’s mistreatment in life by white society during a vivid recollection of an event in his childhood when he was chased by a train filled with “white people laughing as he ran screaming,” a hallucination which was triggered by his exploration of the “old scars” on his body. This connection between alienation and oppression highlight Ellison’s central idea.

    Read More

  • Richard Wright’s novel, Black Boy

    946 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Richard Wright’s novel, Black Boy, Richard is struggling to survive in a racist environment in the South. In his youth, Richard is vaguely aware of the differences between blacks and whites. He scarcely notices if a person is black or white, and views all people equally. As Richard grows older, he becomes more and more aware of how whites treat blacks, the social differences between the races, and how he is expected to act when in the presence of white people. Richard, with a rebellious nature, finds that he is torn between his need to be treated respectfully, with dignity and as an individual with value and his need to conform to the white rules of society for survival and acceptance.

    Read More

  • Sexism In 'Battle Royal' By Ralph Ellison, By Toni Morrison

    1339 Words  | 3 Pages

    The main character’s self-reflection reveals a past that was full of naivety and invisibility. It is also full of underlying race and class segregation. The dream-like setting of the battle which the main character took part of, even though he had spent his life partaking in good conduct, adhering to the wishes of white folks and being praised by them for his excellent conduct (Charters 295), is symbolic of the racial and class struggles which African-Americans have to partake in simply because they are born with different colored skin, because they were not born White. The glass ceiling, violence and hatred which the main character is forced to confront in the story is reminiscent of the struggle African-Americans face in a Capitalist White America which often overlooks successful African-Americans in favor of White-Americans, further dividing the races and feeding oppression. Segregation and oppression hinders the personal growth of the main character even though he does receive a scholarship to attend an African-American college and a first-class article from Shad Whitmore’s shop

    Read More

  • Cultural Criticism of Barn Burning by William Faulkner

    825 Words  | 2 Pages

    the reality of a racist society. He must also discover for himself that his father is wrong

    Read More

  • TV Show: Picket Fences

    1148 Words  | 3 Pages

    Wise, T. (2011). White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son. (2nd ed.). Berkley, CA: Soft Skull Press.

    Read More

  • Bullying: A Major Social Problem in the United States

    1525 Words  | 4 Pages

    Bullying has become a major problem facing the United States today. The American Psychological Association reports that roughly 40% to 80% of children are involved in bullying on some level during their time in school. (APA, 2014) The magnitude of the problem can be observed in the statistics. In the United States, a total of 4,080,879 children between the ages of five and 18 have been the victims of bullying compared to 3,892,199 who have reported that they have engaged in bullying someone else. Additionally, 851,755 said that they have been both the victim and the bully. That's a whopping 8,824,833 people in the United States that have been involved in bullying behavior on one level or another. (High, B., 2000 Census)

    Read More

  • American History X

    1127 Words  | 3 Pages

    was fighting a fire on duty as a firefighter, Derek blamed “blacks, brown, yellows, its all their fault” and that lead him down a dark path. Disgruntled and confused, Derek became a leading member in a Neo-Nazi group, which he called the D.O.C. Danny, his young brother, watched, listened, and breathed every word Derek spoke. He too bought into the world of hatred. During the time Derek spent in jail for killing three black burglars, Danny tried to do everything possible so his brother would respect him when he got out. But the time in jail transformed Derek. He rethought his whole life when his former black principal visited him in jail to ask, “Has anything you’ve done made your life better?” (Kaye).

    Read More

  • Fear, Flight, And Fear In Richard Wright's Native Son

    1216 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bigger Thomas feels trapped long before he is incarcerated for killing Mary Dalton. He is trapped in an overpriced apartment with his family and trapped in a white world he has no hope of changing. He knows that he is predisposed to receiving unfair treatment because he is black, but he still always feels as though he is headed for an unpleasant end. The three sections that make up the novel Native Son by Richard Wright, “Fear,” “Flight” and “Fate,” imply a continuous and pervasive cycle throughout Bigger’s life that ultimately leads him to murder.

    Read More

  • A Bully Film Review

    1064 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Putting an End to Bullying in America

    2337 Words  | 5 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • The Theme Of Racism In Richard Wright's Native Son

    1077 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bigger Thomas, a classic example of institutionalized racism, stars as the protagonist in this novel, Native Son. We are made part of his life and taken on a journey to witness his development as a character, or better defined as: an unraveling of his psyche. Consequently, Richard Wright successfully expresses the rage of the common, black-man throughout the progression of Bigger’s story. The divisions within the book (Fear, Flight, and Fate) help develop the internal turmoil that drives Bigger. Disillusioned by what the universe has dealt him, he turns to murder as his only option (Fear). Then, he begins to obsessively look for an outing (Flight), to discover there is none. Only as the novel reaches its end (Fate), does Bigger begin to experience

    Read More

  • Black Boy And Native Son Racism Essay

    632 Words  | 2 Pages

    As previously stated, growing up, Richard did not know much about racism until certain events occurred, but Bigger already knew. During this time, whites had more privileges than blacks. Not only that, but the whites expected blacks to behave and live in certain ways. Richard worked a few jobs that normally only white people do, but those jobs gave him insight into how whites lived in the South (Black). Richard feared that saying the wrong thing or doing something wrong would cost him his life (Black). Similar to this, Bigger Thomas already knew that white privilege was a problem, but so was the media

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Bullying In Schools

    1201 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bullying is something that is not something new and is actually something that society continues to face. Over the years, bullying has been looked at as being so ordinary in schools that it is continuously overlooked as an emanate threat to students and has been lowered to a belief that bullying is a part of the developmental stage that most young children will experience then overcome (Allebeck, 2005, p. 129). Not everyone gets over the extreme hurt that can come as an effect from bullying, for both the bully and the victim. Because of this, we now see bullying affecting places such as the workplace, social events and even the home. The issue of bullying is not only experienced in schools, but the school environment is one of the best places

    Read More

More about Bullying In Chris Crutcher's Whale Talk

Open Document