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An Analysis Of Bette Greene's The Drowning Of Stephan Jones

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Bette Greene’s The Drowning of Stephan Jones depicts a heartbreaking story of a boy named Stephan and the struggles he faced in his small southern town. In the Novel, Stephan is portrayed as an outsider who doesn’t fit into his mainly Christian neighborhood because he is a homosexual man. Stephan’s partner Frank Montgomery, decided to move to the small town in Alabama in hopes for a better life. But what they didn’t expect was the immense hatred against them and their view on love. Stephan and Frank experienced conflict involving Andy and his friends, who were the popular teenagers in the town. Andy’s girlfriend, Carla Wayland was an outspoken girl who tried to fit in and was against Andy’s actions against the homosexual couple. The actions …show more content…

Andy is angry and confused at Stephan’s way of life because Stephan is different than him. With this, Andy decides to tease and antagonize Stephan by making fun of his name, shoving him, and disrespecting his sexuality. Soon after the encounter with Stephan and Andy in the pizza place, Andy indecisively stole Stephan’s hard earned pizza and he “smashed the steamy pizza” against Stephans petrified face (Greene 67). The theme of extreme bullying is portrayed because Stephan was being physically and verbally attacked by Andy and his posey. Stephan didn’t aggravate Andy or ask for him to steal his pizza, Andy just felt the need to give him a hard time to be disrespectful. Another example of extreme bullying was when Andy took Stephan to a bridge where they assaulted him and disrespected him. During this point in time, the town began to trust Stephan and Frank because they realized that they were nice people that caused no harm. However, in the eyes of Andy and the other pitiful teens, they thought Stephan was a mistake from God and was disgraceful to Christianity. With this, Andy displayed extreme bullying as he ‘whipped [Stephan] back and forth” and was eventually swung over the bridge where he took his last breath (Greene 141). With this, the vivid imagery of how the teenagers exhibited such profane behavior to someone who was different, set up the story and led to a tragic

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