# 13) Bullies
Bullying is when a person or group frequently harms someone who is weaker or more vulnerable then themselves. They do this by means of physical, verbal, or mental abuse. Bullies can be male, female, young or old. The nature of a bully depends on many factors such as sex, age, and past experiences. Depending on the nature of the bully, their actions can have many negative effects on others. Bullies display many characteristics such as aggression, rivalry, and competitive behavior. Bullying occurs in many different places, a good example is in the novel The Lord of the Flies. Jack, the antagonist in this novel, displays many characteristics of a bully. Many children have been victimized by the terrible acts of bullies.
There are bullies everywhere you go some noticeable and others not at all, you may not recognize a bully because they come in many different forms. The abusiveness of bullies’ is usually deliberate and not accidental. There are bullies at work, online, in the public and mostly school. So who is a bully? A bully is a person that causes emotional, psychological, or physical harm by using two different types of attacks. The first type being direct attacks, this consists of threatening, teasing, taunting, name calling, stealing, damaging of belongings, and hitting. Studies say that this type of attack is more common between males. “While both boys and girls say others bully them by making fun of the way they look or talk, boys are more likely to report being hit, slapped, or pushed”( Nansel, Overpeck, Pilla, Ruan, Simons-Morton, Scheidt 2001). The other type of attacks are indirect, they are spreading of rumors and encouraging others to reject someone else. Studies say that this type of attack is more common between females. “Teenage girls are more often the targets of rumors and sexual comments” ( Nansel, Overpeck, Pilla, Ruan, Simons-Morton, Scheidt 2001). Bullies usually target people who are
Cited: Hibbert, A. Why do people bully?. Chicago: Raintree, 2005 Myriam M. Boys will be Boys. NewYork: Doubleday, 1991 Dehaan, Laura. “Bullies.” NDSU Website (1997): 12 par. Online. Internet. 21 Oct. 2006. Available: http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/yf/famsci/fs570w.htm “Bullying.” Canadian Children’s Rights Council (1996): 7 pages. Online. Internet. 21 Oct. 2006. Available: http://www.canadiancrc.com/Bullying.htm Lois, Rogers. “Bullies tighten their grip in the classroom.” Sunday times, November 2005, pg 7 Everest, Paul. “Adults must act against bullying.” Chronicle Herald, June 2006, B4