The Similarities Between 'Fear And The Case Study'

In the short story “Fear” by Gary Soto, and “The Case Study”. There are bullies that show to be caused by identity and choice. These bullies made choices that resulted in them being mean or rude in any way. “Fear” was about a kid named Frankie T. who had a broken home and no father, he was a bully at his school so he would hit kids and steal their lunches. “The Case Study” is about a group of popular kids (and then the whole school) who bully one person because of an opinion they had before. This affected Sue by a lot, she started having low grades and she also had threats sent to her. The connection between identity and choice is shown in “Fear” and “The Case Study” through the perspectives of each character. The similarities and differences

Both the bullies in the short stories are broken in some way or another. In “Fear” it’s Frankie T, he has no father, no food and gets beat by his mom “We knew the house he lived in: The empty refrigerator, the father gone, the mother in a sad bathrobe, the beatings, the yearnings for something to love.” This shows that Frankie was a broken kid, he wanted to be loved, he had no father and was poor. These are a lot of reasons why he would become a bully. In “The Case Study” it’s Jill and Rhonda mostly, Jill was the old victim of the letter which may have offended her a lot, and Rhonda maybe was a little bit mad that Sue wrote the letter. “When Jill found out about Sue’s note, she confronted Sue after school, and they argued in front of a crowd of students.” This information shows that when Jill found the letter, she confronted Sue about that and it might have offended her a lot which would lead her to be sad. Rhonda may have been sad for her friend which would have led her to go bully Sue with them. The similarities between the 2 texts both show through the broken bullies one way or another, Frankie T. no father, Jill and Rhonda, offended because of the note. These are all examples of similarities between the 2

In “Fear” Frankie T has a bad backstory at home and in his life, as shown in the text, “Some of us looked away because it was unfair. We knew the house he lived in: The empty refrigerator, the father gone, the mother in a sad bathrobe, the beatings, the yearnings for something to love. When a teacher manhandled him, we all wanted to run away,” This shows that he has a sad backstory at home and that led him to bully people. But in “The Case Study” the perpetrators don’t have a sad backstory, they had one problem and that caused the choices to become a bully. As shown in the text, “Rhonda: Well, she asked me not to tell you. I probably shouldn’t say. But, you are my friend and you should know. Jill: What is it? Rhonda: Sue said you are stupid to break up with Travis.” This is the time where the one problem was created for the perpetrators. Jill and Rhonda sided with each other because Jill was offended that Sue would say that. The differences between the message of each text about identity and choice are developed through the broken bullies. Jill and Rhonda are not really broken, but they were