Brooklin Johnson-Coles

Ms. Pahomov

English  2

26 March 2018

Ruled by Hate

What happens when a society is ruled by hate? In Lord of the Flies, William Golding writes about a group of boys stuck on an island. They go through all sorts of changes and do some awful things such as outcasting a fellow acquaintance, named Piggy. This demonstrates how in the real world hate escalates. This hate can develop into bullying or harassment, just as was seen in the treatment of Piggy and in the real world with bullying in the Philadelphia School District.  

Piggy was a character in Lord of the Flies that suffered at the hands of hate. He was an easy target to get picked on because he was heavy set and wore glasses. In Chapter One, he was targeted by Jack Merridew, the newly elected chief of the group. Jack states, “You're talking too much, said Jack Merridew. Shut up Fatty...He’s not Fatty cried Ralph...For the moment the boys were a closed circuit of sympathy with Piggy on the outside...” (21) Piggy is humiliated in front of everyone by their chief, which is setting him up to fail for the rest of his time on the island. He had nobody to stick up for him and the person who did just made the group laugh even more. Leaving no room for anybody change or fix the treatment Piggy received. Soon everyone follows after Jack and Piggy becomes one of the most unliked people on the island. Piggy’s reputation is tarnished before he could even introduce himself properly. Name calling is the first level of bullying. Ralph calling Piggy, “Fatty” made his name out to be a joke. Nobody respected him after that. It may not seem like a big deal at first but it can escalate into something worse. It’s like a warning sign for bullying.

This closely relates to bullying in the Philadelphia School District. Amanda Wible was a Philadelphia School Student that was bullied throughout her school experience. She was talked about because of the way she looked. She wore baggy clothes and everyone thought she dressed like a boy. The Inquirer states, "It was mostly name-calling; kids would talk about how I looked, and the fact that I dressed like a boy, said Wible.” This shows that students at her school talked about her physical appearance. The students disliked her because she was different she didn’t fit in and they hated her for it. Just like in Lord of the Flies, when the boys made fun of Piggy because of his weight. Amanda got talked about because she was different, she didn’t look like the other girls. Studies show that most bullying begins with name calling. In both instances, bullying starts with small degrading aspects. Often times, it results in hate and bullying towards another person.

Later on in Lord of the Flies, the boys lack of respect for Piggy grows and they get bolder. The text states, “‘His specs- use them as burning glasses!’ Piggy was surrounded before he could back away. ‘Here- let me go!’ His voice rose to a shriek of terror as Jack snatched the glasses off his face.”(40) This shows the boys turning their hate for Piggy into abuse. They treat him with no respect. They take his glasses without asking or even giving him a minute to process. They aren’t given any consent. Piggy couldn’t even defend himself. The boys think nothing of it, they just take what they need. Nobody ever stops and thinks about Piggy's feelings. This is a result of the boys having no consequence to the name calling. Since, the boys got a way with that, they believed they could just up the stakes. This clearly shows how Piggys bullying escalated. They put their hatred into action. The boys went from Shut up Fatty to taking his personal belongings.

The same goes for Amanda Wible, who’s school experience got worse the more she went to school. She states, “I'd be hit; I'd have things stolen from me, Wible said. ‘I'd report things all the time, and they'd tell me: 'Ignore them. It will stop. We'll talk to them.'" Amanda Wible suffers from physical abuse. The hate the students share for her has caused them to physically attack her. They continued to bully her because just like Piggy they were given no consequences for name calling. Bullying is something that escalates depending on what people are able to get away with. In Amanda's case, she never fought back and when she did speak up no actions took place. And in Piggys case nobody stood up for him or took his side.

To conclude, bullying is something that takes time. Some forms of hate comes from jealousy. There’s not always a reason for someone’s dislike for you. In Piggy and Amanda’s case, they were ostracized for being different. They can’t help their personality or how they look. In society today you can be outcasted for simply being you. Lord of the Flies showed that through Piggy. Hate can drive a person or society to do things without reason. It is the core of bullying and can change a society.

Works Cited

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. Penguin Books, 2006

Graham, Kristen A. “Bullied in School, a Northeast Philly Woman Won a $500,000

Judgment. Her Case Could Ripple.” Https://Www.philly.com, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com, 27 Oct. 2018, www.philly.com/philly/education/northeast-philly-student-bullied-awarded-500000-philadelphia-school-district-20181027.html.

Schafer, John R. “The Seven-Stage Hate Model: The Psychopathology of Hate.” Psychology

Today, Sussex Publishers, 18 Mar. 2011, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/let-their-words-do-the-talking/201103/the-seven-stage-hate-model-the-psychopathology-hate.

“Warning Signs for Bullying.” StopBullying.gov, U.S Department of Health and Human

Services, 7 Feb. 2018, www.stopbullying.gov/at-risk/warning-signs/index.html.

Yo, whats going on? You in trouble or something, you called my phone like 20 times, I was in school. Yeah, I'm free to talk. Wait, didn’t you just break up with Jason like two days ago? How you moving on that fast? Yes, I’m listening you said he’s tall and light skin and wears suits. I don’t know what boy wears suits, but okay continue.

What do you mean he’s older like 17 or in college? He’s your who? So, you're being taken advantage of by your teacher? (long pause)

YES! It is like that. Your teacher is not your boyfriend, y'all aren’t together and you can’t love someone you just met. Do you honestly think a person that’s 30 wants a 16 year old? Something's wrong with him. And you can’t be that— No, I'm not calling you stupid or crazy, it’s not hard to get involved with a handsome pedophile. I just wish you could make better decisions, when I said find a more mature guy to date, I didn’t mean an adult. There’s nothing funny about this; what it is, is a serious case. HE DOESN’T LOVE YOU (pause) or at least in the way you want him to.

Trust me that’s not a relationship that will take you far. I’m not trying to be your mother and nobodies tryna take your happiness away. I’m just tryna get you out of lala land; you're wonderful world of rainbows where men like little girls. He ought to lose his job! It’s that serious Selena. Besides the fact that it isn’t a real relationship, it’s not even legal. I’m trying my best to be patient with you, but you can’t sit here and tell me this is right. I was here for you in your last relationship, the ups and downs. I helped you respond to texts and helped you calm down when Jason did something stupid. I was here for it all, but I can assure you this relationship won’t be the same. I want nothing to do with it. I’m glad that you don’t need me. Okay whatever nothing, the least you could say is thanks for the adv—(click) Did she just hang up on me?

Truth hurts I guess. My intentions aren’t to be hard on her. It just got to me, how she finds “love” so quickly. In the span of her 3 loves I can’t even find one. She turns away all of the guys her age and turns to a teacher- a grown man. I find it sad. Sometimes my sympathy for her translates to anger because there’s so many ways she can change to become the person she wants to be. Or maybe it’s the person I want her to be? Is it my goal and not hers? Why am I even this stressed about a situation that doesn’t concern me and a person who doesn’t want my help? I think I wrap myself into other people’s problems and when they can’t see what I see I get frustrated. I don’t think I can help Selena. She doesn’t even see anything wrong with dating Mr. Bennet. How could she, when she views me as a mom and not her friend. There’s nothing I can do about that, you can’t change how people see you. I can’t make her understand and it frustrates me. I’m watching my friend go down a path, I know leads nowhere good. My advice to her goes in one ear and out the other. There’s nothing I can do. And the more I talk and advise the more she ignores me. She’s slowly drifting away. At least I’ve said my peace. I can’t save everyone.

It’s 5:30 am and it took us about an hour to get there, we were due to board at 8 o’clock. There were seven of us and only two bathrooms. Everyone had to be dressed and ready to eat in a hour and thirty minutes. I can’t remember the last time I got up so early, but that was this morning’s issue. In 2 hours flat I’ve conquered up another issue.

People. So many people. How do you even control such an establishment? People with suitcases and backpacks, all in line waiting for one thing.

Security Checks.

I don’t know why I got so nervous, I didn’t have anything to hide, not anything that might trigger the alarms. I took off my hoodie just in case. I put my side bag and backpack in the bin and waited for my turn.

“Next,” said security.

I held my arms up above my head and spread my legs like the picture showed. Patiently waiting to hear the “clear”. But, I didn’t and my heart started racing. Maybe the machine is broken,  maybe I didn’t have my feet in the right position.

“Step out and then come back in,” the women said.

I stepped inside and mimicked the picture a second time, making sure that I did it exactly. I watched as everyone around me went through the metal detectors. I kept hearing the “clear” over and over again. Patiently waiting for the women to give me my clear.  Instead, I was told to come out and stand on the silhouettes of red feet as the women asked my age and where my guardian was.

“Since she’s under 18, I have to ask your permission to pat her down,” said security.

A pat down? Pat down what? How much could you hide in a T-shirt and tights? The lady explained that my shirt set off the system. I wore an embroidered grey shirt that had the word “Aero” spelled in jewels and glitter. They weren’t even the type of jewels that you could pick off the shirt. I guess the machine had other plans. I never got patted down before and I’ve only seen it happen in the movies. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but by the time the woman was done, I went from being nervous to being irritated. It was almost as if I thought she was going to find something. And of course when she didn’t I felt like the whole process was a waste of everyone's time. My family and I could have already been to the Florida Gate 34 by now.

However, my relief quickly turned back to nervousness as the women came walking towards me with two brown papers in her hands. She swabbed me. My palms were sweaty, I wish she could take retest me. I was frightened because I didn’t know what they were looking for. I didn’t know what type of things could affect the test. I especially couldn’t wrap my 13 year old mind around what “results” they were going to get from wiping paper on my hands. I didn’t know if they were looking for traces of chemicals or testing something completely different. Even at that age my overthinking got the best of me. I tried to slow my heartbeat, thinking that would change the test. Not realizing that a brown paper swab rubbing across my hands could have no correlation with my heart beat. Then I thought about everything that I have touched in the airport. Thinking about that made it worst. I put myself in this guilty position even though I knew I had nothing to hide.  

I didn’t really understand at the time, but people’s jobs have meaning and value. Even the littlest job has a reason for all of it’s tasks. I think about all the horrible plane attacks that have happened over the years. From suicide bombings to gun attacks. As nerve racking and pointless as I thought the checks were I respect that the women took her job seriously. You can not have a truly secure facility if there are special rules for certain people. No matter how simple something could be protocol was made for a reason.

I learned that my original slide was different, but didn’t follow a lot of the presentation zen rules. People explained that there was a lot of information on my slide. They told me that they weren’t sure what to focus on. I learned that I needed to make sure my slide showed a lot more simplicity.

I changed my whole layout for my slide. I choose an influential background and a quote, instead of bullet points and a picture. This ensured that I could design my slide and use tips and tricks from presentation zen. I made changes to my slide so people can have a clear understanding of one aspect about myself.

I researched and analyzed different sources on the internet about slides. “Presentation Zen” helped me to understand how to make a great slide. It taught me about the rule of thirds and that empty space was okay. It also taught me about contrast between images and text. I used the information in “Slide Design for Developers” to choose the perfect colors in my slide. To conclude, presentation zen and critiques helped me to “remix” my slide.