Nearly everyone has witnessed an act of bullying, a prevalent issue among schools around the world. Whether it is due to a troublesome past, a desire to impress others, or another cause, people often express cruelty to others. Someone who chooses not to act when witnessing bullying, shares the blame, as one who does not help the problem becomes part of it. However, those responsible often have trouble owning up to their behavior and admitting to their involvement. In the stories, “Run Sheep Run” and “Sucker”, both narrators, Nancy and Pete, allow pain to be inflicted on someone; Pete directly causes the pain himself. Although both Pete and Nancy are responsible for letting an innocent be hurt, only Pete takes responsibility by acknowledging …show more content…
Though Nancy is responsible for allowing an innocent to be hurt without interference, she does not apologize or allow the incident to improve her character. Nancy’s involvement in personally bullying the victim, Mattie, is minimal, but she allows others to do so without intervening. After seeing the effect this has on Mattie, she does not apologize, but justifies to herself why she did not discourage her friends from bullying. Rationalizing, she thinks “… A person would have to be crazy to toss aside the best crowd in the school, ” (Howland, 84). Instead of taking responsibility for her lack of interference and then apologizing, she decides that complying with the crowd was just. Similarly, after the incident, she remains in her friend group and does not evolve from the situation. Not empathizing with Mattie, she does not alter her beliefs about being kind to those not in her friend group, but continues to agree with the opinions of her friends. Expressing her static beliefs, she thinks “… it’s like Peggy said, you can’t go along feeling responsible for every misfit that comes along,” (Howland, 84). She does not come to a realization that shifts her views and enhances her charisma, but instead agrees with her friend’s opinion and continues to deny her