Bullying is a growing issue in our society affecting many people. People do not realize the damage they are doing to people and their families. Not only do the bullies hurt the people verbally, but they can get hurt mentally which could lead the victim to harm themselves or commit suicide. Even though we are not all white or all African American that does not mean we all should not be treated the same. Chris Crutcher wrote Whale Talk to show how bullying can dramatically hurt people by expressing acts of violence, using profanity and racial slurs. In Whale Talk the theme of violence comes up quite frequently. This shows the feelings each character has and the different way each character handles them. “I glimpse the muzzle of the deer rifle,
Pittacus Lore once said, “The price of a memory, is the memory of the sorrow it brings.” In the realistic fiction book Whale Talk, by Chris Crutcher, The main character’s name is TJ, and TJ’s father said, “a good day is one in which you avoid remembering the events of July 27, 1968” (Crutcher 56). What happened that day was that an eighteen month old boy was wandering and was lost. What resulted from this was that he ended up outside and got stuck in between two of the tires of TJ’s father’s pickup truck. TJ’s dad didn’t check the truck, and started driving without noticing what he did.
Chris Crutcher wrote the book Whale Talk for a reason to entertain the reader and because he felt it would send a positive and negative message to the reader. The book has multiple messages such as, bullying, harassment, racism, violence, abuse, teamwork, caring for others and family values. The biggest message he sent was about family values ( how family can affect a child’s life in a positive and negative way ). The first topic in the story is language, how the language that Rich Marshal uses towards his step daughter Heidi effects her. On page 94, Georgia is a friend of Tjs who is also a psychologist.
Through reading Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher it quickly became evident that traumatic events and loss of life are an important part of both the storyline and the character’s lives. After T.J. leads his team to State Championships and helps them earn their letter jackets, the story starts to unwind and come to a close. No longer bogged down by time consuming swim practices, T.J. decides to get together a team for the annual basketball tournament. His team consists of a few swimmers and his father, John Paul. As the tournament progresses, T.j.’s team beats Rich Marshall’s in the championship round.
In every society there is a norm which is an expectation or ideal features for the individual. In Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher Andy Mott and Carly are rebels against society and its norms. Rebellion comes in many forms for some it’s how they style their hair or their clothes, but for Andy it's with his “could-care-less” attitude. In addition to his attitude he is ruthless.
These whales are friendly in the wild and it’s been reported of them saving humans and interacting with them, as “to this day, there is no record of an orca doing any harm to any humans in the wild” (Wise). Orcas actions could not be more different in captivity. In all, violence has become a common yet horrific scene in aquatic parks. The real horror is between these captured creatures. Orcas with different backgrounds and dialects are placed together without much thought about how this could affect them.
Characterization is a literary element utilized by Chris Crutcher in Whale Talk, throughout the story, to help the readers get a better, established, understanding of the characters, to further develop his story. The characters in Whale Talk are believable and realistic which helps the reader to connect their knowledge to the story, and to enhance their comprehension of the story. The main character is a round character, and his name is The Tao Jones, but he prefers the nickname T.J. Through direct characterization, the reader knows that T.J. turns down every opportunity he receives that relate to participating in team sports, even though he a very athletic young man, which makes him complex, and somewhat difficult to understand. T.J. explains, “I’ll be breaking a career-long rule banning myself from
Crutcher definitely got his point across with the seriousness of all these matters. A lot of times we read books, and they don’t really mean anything to us, but Whale Talk was different. I think it leaves a strong impact on anyone who decides to read this novel. I feel that it also gives us a reality check on how to treat others which alot of us do not think twice
Director, writer, and producer, Gabriella Cowperthwaite, in her documentary, Blackfish, describes the shameless hunting and treatment of killer whales. Cowperthwaite’s purpose is to persuade us into opening our eyes to the reality of what we are doing to killer whales by confining them in captivity. She invents an emotionally wrenching tone in order to transmit to the adult viewers that living in captivity may not be acceptable life for the whales. The film effectively showed that the whales should not be kept in captivity by giving the audience examples of their signs of aggression and displays of emotion. Cowperthwaite begins her documentary by showing how killer whales can become barbaric when held captive.
Bullying is an undesirable, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves actual disparity of power. According to Megan Brooks bullying is a serious public health problems, with significant short-and long-term psychological consequences for the child who is bullied and the child who is the bully. This only tells us that bullying can lead to difficulty that a certain children may experience and will have either short or long term problem. “Bullying has long been tolerated as a rite of passage among children and adolescents, but it has lasting, negative consequences and cannot simply be ignored.” Committee chair Frederick Rivera, MD.
Annotated Bibliography Sarahi Ali Gutierrez Nevada State College Annotated Bibliography Annotation 1 Piskin, M. (2002). School bullying: definition, types, related factors, and strategies to prevent bullying problems. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 2(2), 555.
Bullying has been named an “emerging public health issue requiring intervention” (Ansary, Elias, Greene, & Green, 2015, p. 27). As a major problem in schools around the world, the issue of bullying must be addressed in order to keep students physically and emotionally safe. The act of bullying not only affects the well-being of the person being targeted, but it also affects the rest of the school community too. It can be difficult for teachers, principals, and superintendents to make an ethical decision about what to do when bullying occurs because there are misunderstandings about what bullying is, leading to the improper identification of situations.
Bullying in Schools What seems fun and harmless for some students, is painful and degrading to others. Bullying has been a critical issue around schools, but before it was not as dangerous and know as it is now. These do not means bullying was not happening, it means it was not taken into consideration by parents or teachers. They thought it was just peer pressure or a kids game, and sooner or later the kids would be friends again. At one point, bullies think it’s normal to be mean and abusive to other students.
Bullying is a widespread problem in our schools and communities and has a negative impact on students’ right to learn in a safe and secure environment without fear. It is a process in which one person repeatedly uses his/her superior strength or influence to mistreat, attack or force another person to do something (Van der Werf, 2014). Bullying or peer victimization is now recognized as a complex and pervasive problem (Beran, 2009). It is an ongoing problem that is not restricted by age, race, gender or class. This behavior generally takes one of four forms, physical such as assault, verbal which involves threats or insults, social which entails exclusion or rumor spreading, and cyber which includes aggressive texts or social network posts
Bullying Can Be Prevented Bullying is a form of violence to pick on victims because they are different from their bullies, have insecurity/jealousy or home problems. The hate towards their victim has something to do with the victim having an unusual gift or being intelligent the bullies has yet to become. It is important that this behavior should be prevented or it will become worse. Bullying is one of the main issues public and private schools have to face on a day-to-day basis. When the bully takes it too far, the victim snaps and retaliates by fighting him/her back physically or verbally.
Bullying is defined as repeated oppression, physical or psychological of a less powerful individual by a more powerful individual, people or group. It consists of three main types of abuse which are physical, verbal and emotional. Bullying in schools is a common and worldwide spread problem that can have critical and negative implications on the general school climate as well as on the right of students to study in a safe and secure environment without fear. Many people believe that bullying is part of life, happens in all schools and so it’s not an issue to worry about and that it lets individuals know what life is all about as it toughens them but in reality bullying is a detrimental problem that affects most school going children and teenagers physically, emotionally and socially.