Richard Peck's Priscilla And The Wimps

What's big, and pushes people down? The answer is bullys and we all know that bullies are the worst part of middle/high school. When we were little the only thing that use bothered us was when the girl in front of us stole the only pink scissors in class. Now that we are older we have a lot more that brothers us including grades, what we are going to wear and bullies. “Priscilla and the Wimps” written by Richard Peck is a humor take on how students try to go through a day without a gang of bullies walking up to them asking for money. It's a short story about a group of gang (bullies) going around asking people for money and beating them up. This one girl name Priscilla finds out her best friend Melvin is getting bullied and goes to help him. She ends up scaring the bullies away which, shocked everyone that had saw the incident. “Priscilla and the Wimps” is a high comedy short story that will make you chuckle, giggle and smirk. The story might be comedy but it

has a secret message. You should try and stick up to a bully that is bullying you, a friend or even a strange.
Although, “Priscilla and the Wimps” is about a serious topic it is turned into a humorous short story. The characters and situation give the story it’s comedic effect on the whole bullying thing. One example, of a comic character is Priscilla and Melvin, two of the main people.”Priscilla was, hands down, the largest students in our particular institution of learning,” She had one friend , a little gut named Melvin, Melvin one of the smallest guy above midget status ever seen.” (Peck 344)
People might find these funny because you do not expect to see such an odd combination. People would most likely say that the guy would be bigger then the girl or the girl needs saving but, Melvin in the story is the one getting bullied and Priscilla is the one saving him. Another, reason the story is so humorous is the station. “The gang he ran, which ran the school the for him, was his collection .” (Peck 343) In school, there are bullies but from a personally perseptive, bully gangs do not exist or less common. These is a comedic effect because it is just funny to see that kids have “gangs” in middle school. Overall, the short story has a lot of little chuckles and giggles throughout the story.
Another, thing that the story does is write silly word-play-puns and hyperbole.

For example, “I'm so hungry I could eat a horse”. “When the Kobras slithered by, with or without Monk, I would shrank.” (Peck 343) The bully did not literally slithered by, he probably just walked and the guy did not literally shrank. Richard Peck just used hyperbole to show that the kid was scared of the bullies. Mostly, there were on word play and one liners in the story. Like, “Pricilla was sort of above everything, if you’ll pardon the pun.” These was used to show how “big” Priscilla compared to the other students. Although the author uses word-puns he also used hyperbole to exaggerate the kobras and how people are scared of them. “When the Kobras slithered by, with or without Monk, I shrank.” These meant that the charter did not really shrank he was just scared of the Kobra’s when he walkes be because he might ask the character for money. When the author used word play and hyperbole, the comic effect is chuckle or

smile.
In the short story, “Priscilla and the Wimps” there is comic characters and solutions. Which will make the reader chuckle or smile. Also, the short story has hyperbole and wordplay and puns. Which, will also make you laugh and chuckle. If someone is being bullied , friend or not you should try to help or get help.