Letter to a Playground Bully by Andrea Gibson

1150 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay on Bullying Literature Review

Andrea Gibson’s’ poem ‘Letter to the Playground Bully’ is an unforgettable poem about bullying. She cleverly crafts a poem from the perspective of an 8 and a half year old girl who is trying to confront the playground bully through a letter. The poem’s sole purpose is to expose the hardships and reality for victims of bullying. She achieves this by making the speaker a younger version of herself. She wrote this poem in order to perform in front of high school and elementary school students to try and stop bullying. Gibson explores unfamiliar territory related to bullying in a straightforward, sweet, yet different approach.

Andrea Gibson has been on the receiving end and on the defender’s side of bullying. ‘Letter to the Playground bully’ is a summation of her past and other people’s reality. Gibson is well known for her powerful spoken word poetry on “war, class, gender, bullying, white privilege, sexuality, love, and spirituality.” (Gibson, Bio) Gibson is also an activist in several groups and an active member of the LGBT community. Most of her poems are written in order to express the many daily struggles members of the LGBT community share. This poem in particular was based off bullying and the lack of a safe environment established in schools. Gibson wrote this poem to read in elementary and high schools. The speaker in the poem was based off of a younger version of her. Every conclusion and memory that the speaker stated was consistent and flowed smoothly the same childlike way a child’s mind works.

Gibson begins her poem, “Letter to the playground bully’ through feeble attempts at trying to justify the bully’s behavior. She appeals first to the audience’s genuine anger towards bullies “maybe you’ve bee...

... middle of paper ...

...led out by the bully because of their vulnerability. Most bullies have anger and frustration built up inside of them that they release on others whether it stems from abuse or family problems. It’s important for them to know that they’re not alone and making other people suffer is not the way to deal with their problems. Bullying victims and bullies both may develop lasting damage from the incidents. Bullies often develop criminal behavior while victims develop emotional scars. Letter to the Playground Bully is a poem that speaks volumes in so little words. Gibson has achieved the impossible by reaching out to people of all ages, exposing the harsh reality of bullying and gathering more people to fight the cause.

Works Cited

Gibson, Andrea. "Bio." 09 December 2010. Andrea Gibson. 10 april 2014.

—. "Poems." 09 December 2010. Andrea Gibson. 10 april 2014.

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Marge Piercy's Barbie Doll

    1880 Words  | 4 Pages

    Author, Marge Piercy, introduces us to a young adolescent girl without a care in the world until puberty begins. The cruelty of her friends emerges and ultimately she takes her own life to achieve perfection in “Barbie Dolls” (648). At the time when all children are adjusting to their ever changing bodies, the insults and cruelties of their peers begin and children who were once friends for many years, become strangers over night caught in a world of bullying. A child who is bullied can develop severe depression which can lead to suicide; and although schools have been educated in recognizing the signs of bullying, there is an epidemic that has yet to be fully addressed within our schools or society.

    Read More

  • Phoebe Prince: Should School Bullying Be A Crime?

    705 Words  | 2 Pages

    The purpose of writing this article is to highlight the adverse effects of bullying on vulnerable individuals. Hopefully, the light shed here using Phoebe Prince story will put a halt on this vice in our school system. Playing it safe by being well mannered can only get you so far when it comes to avoiding being victimized by bullies.The key to avoid bullying as such is not to learn how to be as invisible as possible, but to learn how to stand up for oneself and have a support network that one can fall upon. The Phoebe Prince story features prominently to help students and parents understand the dynamics behind bullying and how to arrest it so that no individual gets emotionally damaged.

    Read More

  • Justifying Evil for Good is Cruel

    902 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Affects of Bullying in Life and in Lord of the Rings

    1283 Words  | 3 Pages

    Though, some may not understand how bullying can be dangerous and extremely hurtful, not only physically, but mentally; it is best to properly explain that bullying is actually defined as “intentional aggressive behavior characterized by an imbalance of strength or power” (Fields). KidsHealth, in 2004, with the help of children revealing that they are one of these bullies, provided a survey showing that “40 percent of children in between the ages of nine to thirteen are one of these bullies” (Turley).

    Read More

  • Bullying And Harassment Essay, By Dawn Turner Trice

    1744 Words  | 4 Pages

    Imagine coming home from school, you are already upset from getting bullied and then your phone starts beeping. It repeatedly keeps alerting you and it fills up with hateful messages and threats. This is the life of a child who is bullied and harassed, this happens to them constantly until they eventually implode. Adults think of bullying as kids being kids and being a part of life; but, no child should go through the pain and torture of that. Bullying happens across the world, with no cure to it, it 's a plague that needs to stop. Children from the UK, France, and many other countries are subjected to this. In the United States, many cases have been dealt with which involves pre-teens and teens committed

    Read More

  • Bullying and School Violence: The Colombine High School Shooting

    1148 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many people find the word “bullying” hard to define. In fact, the definition of the word has changed greatly within the last ten years. The current definition of bullying, according to stopbullying.gov, is “unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is reappeared, or has the potential to be repeated over tim...

    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

  • Bullying and Violence in Public Schools

    1349 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although bullying has always been a problem in schools, it has more recently become a bigger crisis with vicious consequences. “However it is defined, bullying is not just child’s play, but a terrifying experience many schoolchildren face everyday. It can be as direct as teasing, hitting or threatening, or as indirect as exclusions, rumors or manipulation” (Garrett 2). Most kids do not think certain actions are classified as bullying, yet they do not realize the severity of the way they treat their peers. What they may see as “joking around” can be viewed as them being a bully, and they may even be hurting someone’s feelings without realizing the effect that they have. This can then lead to school violence, which is a prevalent issue in today’s society. There are many causes to bullying and school violence and many effects as well. However, if dealt with properly, there are ways to solve these prevailing problems.

    Read More

  • Understanding Bullying: Causes, Effects and Solutions

    1651 Words  | 4 Pages

    In school you probably remember the “odd-balls” being picked on by the “cool kids”. Maybe they were being called offensive names or were being laughed at because of something they liked, if they looked or acted a certain way. Or possibly it was because of their religion. The truth of the matter is, people will use just about any reason to bully and use different methods when bullying. Questions that rise is what kind of bullying is there? How does it affect the person being targeted? How can we take a stand to stop bullying and ultimately, how can we help those who are being bullied? This essay will consider and answer these questions.

    Read More

  • Bullying Essay

    573 Words  | 2 Pages

    Experts say that bullying begins around middle school, where children are changing to young adults. In bullying there are three people involved the bully, the victim, and the bystander. The bystander also holds responsibility when bullying occurs, because they are present but never take part because they fear the intimidator. Often targets are considered to be “different” from others, and that consists of students having specials needs, being gay, bisexual, overweight, or most importantly students who are viewed as easy prey. When bullying is attempted it can ruin a student physically and emotionally influencing the capability of a pupil to learn. It is recorded that in the United States 160,000 teenagers skip school in order to avoid bullying, and one out of ten teens quits school because of continuous tormenting. In 2014 statistics in the U.S. showed that only 20-30 percent of students who are bullied tell an adult or the authorities. The only way bullying can be prevented is when schools make a great effort to create no tolerance programs, and effective rules. That will result...

    Read More

  • Conflict Theory On Bullying

    771 Words  | 2 Pages

    Bullying has been around for decades and yet it is still a reoccurring problem, and it is only getting worse. The National Center for Educational Statistics, in 2009, said nearly 1 in 3 students between the ages of 12 and 18 reported being bullied in school. Eight years earlier, only 14 percent of that population said they had experienced bullying(Ollove,2014). There are two types of bullying the direct form and indirect form, in the direct form the victim receives physical harm example kicking pushing shoving. In the indirect form the victim receives emotional or mental harm by name-calling, rejection, gossip, threats, or insults(Green,2007). It doesn’t matter which way the victim was bullied it still causes

    Read More

  • Child Bullying Essay

    1151 Words  | 3 Pages

    The article, “Bullies and Their Victims”, by Berk (2010) gives an analysis of how bullies and their victims develop, what makes them persistent and how they and their victims can be assisted. Bullying is an activity that thrives mostly in a school setting because of peers and the various cultures and diversities among them. Interactions are inevitable among children, but bullying is destructive because it aims at peer victimisation. Both boys and girls have the ability to become bullies but the majority of them are boys who use physical and verbal attacks on their victims. In the more recent generations, the means of bullying is amplified in the adolescent stage by using electronic means like cyber bullying. Students will rarely like bullies but if they do, it is because of their leadership abilities or influential personalities. Their peers may join or stand by to watch as the victims are bullied.

    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

  • An Essay About Bullying

    1216 Words  | 3 Pages

    “"If bullying is every single mean thing that happens, then there's nothing we can do to stop it," says Emily Bazelon, author of Sticks and Stones.” (pg. 8).

    Read More

  • Bullying Essay

    630 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...anxiety disorders when they grown up. Victims of playground bullies carry physiological scars into adulthood which can have a profound of their life. US study shows that impact of bullying is not something easily outgrown and forgotten, “70 per cent of women and a third of men have faked an orgasm to avoid hurting their parents feeling”. Bullying , which we tend to think of as a normal and not terrible part of childhood , have serious consequences children.

    Read More

More about Letter to a Playground Bully by Andrea Gibson

Open Document