Bullying In Rona Maynard's Short Story 'The Fan Club'

The short story “The Fan Club” by Rona Maynard is about an average high school student, Laura, who encounters bullying. Laura believed she was being made fun of by Diane Goddard and her friends and became very uncomfortable, because Diane’s clique always giggled and gossiped all the time around her. Laura’s friend, Rachel Horton was looked down upon, because people thought she looked poor and dirty, so she was unpopular. Because Rachel was not dressed as nicely and was not as popular, she became subject to bullying. One day, one of Laura’s classes consisted of her classmates giving speeches about a topic that they researched. After Rachel’s presentation, the whole class erupted into laughter, and mock applause, except for Laura. Laura, being

Many students said bad things about Rachel, especially people in Diane’s friend circle. For example, Diane’s love interest, Steve, said, “‘Man, that kid’s dumb,’” The author later goes on to say that his voice could be heard across the whole room, which means that Steve purposely said what he said in a way that everybody could hear him jibing at Rachel. Another example of students scoffing at Rachel was when students were joking about where she got her things from. “‘Bet she got it at Woolworth’s,’ somebody whispered. ‘Or in a trash dump.’ That was Diane.” This proves that many students looked down on Rachel because of her appearance and financial state. Finally, the biggest and worst moment of the bullying, “Choked giggles, shuffling feet—and then applause—wild, sarcastic, malicious applause” shows that the majority of students in the class participated in the derision of their classmate. However, this is not the only scene where bullying pressures others into doing the same, as it can also be seen when the bullies encourage Laura to take part in the

One instance of this was when one student pointed out Rachel’s outfit. “It was Ellen. ‘Hey, how’s that for a smart outfit?’ She pointed to the other side of the hall.” This shows an instance where Ellen tries to open up an opportunity for Laura to make fun of Rachel. Later on, after Diane cooked up a show of embarrassing Rachel, nearly everyone joined in the jeering. Seeing that most people were doing what Diane wanted them to do, Diane found an opportunity to drag Laura into the mockery. She made her way to Laura and “Diane was nudging her and holding out a card. ‘Hey, Laura, here’s one for you to wear.’” This shows that Diane was trying to drag Laura into the bullying. Like Ellen, Diane also tries to tempt Laura into joining in on the bullying of Rachel, when she said, “‘She’s a creep, isn’t she?’ Diane’s voice was soft and intimate.” This also shows that Diana was using a kind voice to sweet-talk to Laura to entice her into bullying Rachel. She was offering Laura a beautiful, tempting, but poisonous apple. Laura would eventually bite into the poisonous apple, because in addition to the scene where the bullies tempt Laura to take part in bullying Rachel, the theme of bullying pressuring people is also seen when Laura pinned the card and started clapping along with the