Bullying is repeated verbal, physical, social or psychological aggressive behaviour by a person or group directed towards a less powerful person or group that is intended to cause harm. According to NoBullying.com, nine out of ten LGBT students reported verbal harassment because of their sexual orientation. In the novel “Shine,” the author Lauren Myracle has crafted an emotional, intense, hard-to-put-down story that ties sexuality, violence and addiction to bullying through numerous literary elements. Through characterization, Myracle implements characters with different perspectives towards bullying and displays their progression in attitude towards being directly affected by it as the story develops. Through conflict, Myracle displays how …show more content…
Turning a blind eye is a theme that can be targeted towards bystanders in particular who can also be seen as bullies. In the book, Cat tells the reader,
Now Patrick was in a coma, and I was partly to blame because by turning a blind eye in high school, I’d said, go on and hurt him. I don’t care. And by doing that, I’d opened the door to more hurt, because when a person did something wrong and got away with it, he tended to do it again. (82) In this quotation, Cat reveals to the reader that she believes she was one of the reasons Patrick was in a coma. By distancing herself away from Patrick rather than standing up for him, she allowed the bullying to get worse and worse up to the point it is at now, with her former best friend lying in what seems to be an endless sleep in the hospital. Through this quotation, Myracle is trying to express her message to bystanders. She is trying to tell them that when you see it, stop it, or else you’ll be feeling the guilt in the end when someone ends up seriously hurt or maybe even dead. Myracle also targets the theme of blinding oneself from bad things towards the victims of bullying. In the text, Cat tells the