Throughout the novel Lord of the Flies the character Piggy was often looked as the overweight, four-eyed, physically unfit member of the group that had no value other than as punching bag. Rather than being a valued member of the group, Piggy was often taken advantage of and all of his ideas were shadowed by the fact that he was overweight. Piggy’s ideas were often overlooked by the fact that he was overweight despite that many of his ideas would bring great benefit to the group.
For example, Piggy brought up that it would e a good idea to make a sundial. The boys dismissed this idea right away and told him to “shut up, fatty! (page number). Piggy’s idea could have led the boys to record the times that they saw ships pass by so they know when and what times they pass, potentially helping them escape the island faster. Nonetheless, Piggy was always shut out of the group because of his appearance being different from everyone else’s. Negatively targeting someone because they are “different” is often translated as bullying. Bullying affects over 3. 2 million students a year, sometimes causing negative side effects such as depression, anxiety, eating problems, and suicidal thoughts.
Since the 21st century bullying has drastically changed, for the worse. T Higher exposure to the internet has brought upon a new form of bullying that is now the most used form by younger and older teens between the ages of 3 and 19. Cyberbullying is bullying that takes place using electronic technology such as cellphones and computers with communication tools including social media, text messages, and websites. Despite most of the bullying being done via the internet many children and young adults affected by cyberbullying are also affected by bullying in erson whether is be social, verbal (direct or indirect), or physical.
Social bullying may be harder to detect that cyber bullying but it includes lying about an individual, rumor spreading, purposely humiliating, mimicking, and anything that involves damaging the social reputation of an individual such as encouraging others exclude someone for whatever reason. Social bullying is considered the first spiraling step of bullying someone. Most of the time social bullying leads to verbal bullying, which is a form of bullying that focuses on verbal assault such as name calling, teasing, and/or intimidation.
Verbal bullying is most common form of bullying that takes place, “80% of verbal bullying takes place at school” (Nobullying. com). At first, verbal bullying may seems harmless but many times the verbal abuse can escalate to levels which begin affecting the individual. Despite the fact that verbal bullying is now among one of the most popular forms of bullying, in the 1950’s “surveys of bullying in British schoolchildren found that children were more likely to experience physical forms of bullying” (Rivers).
Physical bullying is among the most severe type to bullying because of the fact that it includes violent acts such as hitting, kicking, punching, which can cause both short and long term damage. Although bullying has become such a horrible worldwide problem, most of bullying that occurs goes unreported, “64% of children that were bullied did not report it” (Petrosina, Guckenburg, DeVoe, & Hanson, 2010). Since then students and school faculty have tried to be more approachable so students could feel safe reporting bullying.
Many schools such as Palm Desert High School have implied a zero tolerance for bullying act that shows the real serious side of bullying and how it would be properly handled. Many ways to prevent bullying include providing an open and safe place where students feel free to report any case of bullying that may be going on, and strongly implying that bullying will not be tolerated and will lead to serious consequences.
In regards to cyber bullying, ways to prevent it is to think before posting omething online, think about who can view your profile or online posts, reporting any profiles that may be cyberbullying other and telling an adult of a faculty staff member. How have children changed since the 1950’s in regards to bullying? Children have changed a lot since the 1950’s in terms of bullying. In the 1950’s people did not take bullying seriously, students would bully because they wanted to look tough, cool, be popular, and they wanted that self approval from their peers. They would bully mostly younger kids or students such as “nerds or geeks”(Steven) without having any consequences.
The bullying would be physical or verbal just like in lord of the flies they would bully verbally by saying hurtful words like, “You’re talking too much… Shut up, Fatty:”(Goldin) or, “You’re always scared. Yah—Fatty! “(Goldin) and physically when, “Jack snatched the glasses off his face… “(Goldin) or, “Henry and Johnny were throwing sand at Percival who was crying quietly again… “(Goldin). If you would tell an adult that you were being bullied they would just tell you,”get tough”(Steven) or,”stand up”(Steven) to the bully.
People started to take notice of the effects of bullying in the 90s, when two seniors at Columbine High School in Littleton Colorado, shot twelve students and one teacher to death, and wounded many others. Many ask, what would drive these student to commit this malicious act? Well both of the shooters were classified as gifted children that had been previously bullied for years. Since then, society started to take a closer look at the side effects bullying and began to have a different perspective in bullying situations.
Schools started to take gradual actions on bullying and began employing a zero tolerance for bullying act. Now, bullying is not something today’s youth would do to look tough, cool, or be popular. Today bullying is taken more seriously to the point that if you bully someone would lead to severe consequences. One of the main reasons the bullies can hold so much power against an individual is because of intimidation. Intimidation is frighten someone in order to make them do what one wants. Intimidation is often called “bullying’s evil twin” because intimidation is a big part of the bullying process.
Intimidation can be portrayed through objects such as the conch in Lord of the Flies, “Shut up, said Ralph absently. He lifted the conch. Seems to me we ought to have a chief to decide things. ” (Golding 231). In Lord of the Flies Golding uses the conch as a form of intimidation for whoever had the conch was in position to speak and everyone had to listen. Bullies also use threats to build up intimidation against the victim, much like in Lord of the Flies when Jack threatens the other tribe “I’m warning you. I’m going to get angry. D’you see?
You’re not wanted. Understand? We are going to have fun on this island. Understand? We are going to have fun on this island! So don’t try it on, my poor misguided boy, or else… We shall do you, see? “. Golding portrayal of verbal and physical intimidation used by the boys is very closely related to the verbal and physical intimidation that bullies still use today. Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within the other being’s frame of reference, the capacity to place oneself in another’s position.
Empathy is seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another and feeling with the heart of another. Empathy is not in a politely react, it’s in the opposite way, It’s bullying. Empathy represents a different feeling or an opposite feeling to the other. For an example, in the book, piggy gets bullied because he’s that one fat boy with a glasses that looks like a pig and including Ralph who is Piggy’s closest friend. Nearly all of the boys ridicule Piggy because of his weight, bad eyesight, and high level of intelligence.
The second Example is that he gets killed at the end because of them boys bullying him. The cause of his death was falling from the top of the mountain and Ralph, who hears the rock falling, dives and dodges it. But the boulder strikes Piggy, shatters the conch shell he is holding, and knocks him off the mountainside to his death on the rocks below. Jack throws his spear at Ralph, and the other boys quickly to join in. Bullying does not only affect the victim, but it can also affect the bully and bystanders. Bullying affects children and young adults in many ways, whether it be severe or moderate.
Anyone can be a victim of bullying but, the most common ages are ages 3 through 17. Early onset bullying has a big mental impact and lead to social anxiety in years to come. Bullying can lead to anxiety, depression, and low self esteem which can put an individual’s mental health in jeopardy. In worse cases, bullying can lead to severe suicidal thoughts that can push someone to or to the brink of suicide. Suicide has become the 3rd leading cause of death in young people. According to bullying statistics over 4,000 children and young adults between the ages of 9 and 19 commit suicide per year due to bullying.
Today, bullying related deaths have skyrocketed. Bullying has taken a toll on an alarmingly large amount of lives, so much that organizations such as stompoutbullying. org have organised special events to take place every October in commemoration of National Bullying Prevention Month. There has even been special bullying prevention centers built as bullying safe zone for youth of America located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. By refusing to be a bystander to bullying today’s youth will not only helping a victim of bullying feel safe, but could possibly be saving a life.
