Theme Of Bullying In Lord Of The Flies

From the reading of “PERSONAL HEALTH; A Bully’s Future, From Hard Life to Hard Time,” and Lord of the Flies, bullies may be subject to more violent behavior and cause victims to suffer intense emotional distress which could lead to a lack of confidence or depressive behavior and could trigger them to start engaging in violent acts themselves. Bullying occurs plenty in Lord of the Flies, for example, Piggy was a main victim of bullying because he was fat and had the nickname of “Piggy.” In chapter 1 when Piggy first met Ralph, he told him,"I don't care what they call me," he said confidentially, "so long as they don't call me what they used to call me in school."Ralph was faintly interested."What was that?"The fat boy glanced over his shoulder, then leaned toward Ralph. He

He jumped up. “Piggy! Piggy!” “Ralph-please!” (Golding, 11). Clearly Ralph did not sense the seriousness of how much that offensive nickname hurt Piggy so he kept calling him that despite Piggy’s attempts to show him how upset it made him. As stated in the article, “Victims suffer not only emotional distress but also social marginalization,” (Brody, 20), meaning that they begin to feel themselves in a lower status than the people around them and a sense of isolation starts to take over. In Lord of the Flies, Jack, the antagonist, went as far as causing physical and verbal harm to Piggy by breaking his glasses and calling him names. “He took a step, and able at last to hit someone, stuck his fist into Piggy’s stomach. Piggy sat down with a grunt. Jack stood over him. His voice was vicious with humiliation. “You would, would you? Fatty!” Ralph made a step forward and Jack smacked Piggy’s head. Piggy’s glasses flew off and tinkled on the rocks,” (Golding, 71). The main reason as to why Jack did that to Piggy is because he feels superior to him and is eager to make rules and punish those who break them.