'Racism Revealed In Grace Paley's Story Samuel'

The story “Samuel” by Grace Paley explains how a young boy’s life was taken from him in a tragic accident. On reason the accident could have occurred could have been the fact that Samuel was a non-white boy. Some of the passengers on the train could have also seen Samuel was a bully to the other boys. In the 1970’s segregation had ended, but that does not mean the passengers didn’t want to separate themselves from the non-white boys. Racism was a very big thing back in the 1970’s, and it could be the main reason Samuel was killed. Many people of different races were treated differently every day, and not always in a good way. In his article it states, “The most common way of thinking about racism sees it as negative or hateful attitudes that individuals have about groups of people who are different than them in some way (usually skin color). (Camfielo). The man that pulled the emergency cord could have been showing a sign of racism over the fact that boys were not the same race as them and also laughing and making fun of the women on the subway car. The lady that was nervous to say anything because she didn’t want to get
Aspa defines a bully as “an imbalance of power: kids who bully use their power- Physical Strength, access to embarrassing information, and popularity- to control or harm others.” (Aspa). In the Paley’s story Samuel is a bully for using physical strength to hurt the other boy even when the boy begins to cry. The man that pulled the emergency brake was said to have had a watchful boyhood instead of brave, so the reader could assume that the man got bullied a lot as a kid, which would have compelled him to pull the emergency brake cord to stop Samuel from hurting the other boy any more. Bullies have always played a big role in society, but given the time the story took place, segregation could have had a bigger role in Samuels’s