The Body Of Christopher Creed
Bullying is a common problem among today’s youth. Different types of bullying effect people in many different ways, but when someone is bullied for so long they must take action. The Body Of Christopher Creed written by Carol Plum-Ucci includes many different characters using many different types of bullying. Leandra, Renée and Bo are examples how mean and evil teenagers can really be. This novel explains how bullying can be. Many people think that bullies like Leandra and Renée who use relational and verbal bullying are not as bad as bullies like Bo, who use physical violence to bully others. In reality they can be just as bad.
Leandra make outsiders feel unwanted by excluding them and judging other people who are not in her own social group. These outsiders then feel worthless, and many people cannot detect this type of bullying. Leandra is picking apart and judging Ali because of what she wears and how she is not a good cheerleader. She also compares her to boons, who are considered to be barbarian like.
“When she finally [gets] to cheerleading, she had a bunch of leaves in her hair,” Leandra went on. “Maybe she thinks she’s an Indian,” I muttered. “And… you know that little doodad she [is] wearing around her neck? It looks exactly like those things that all the boons wear. So people are saying some boon guy [gives] it to her, so now she’s doing it with a boon.” (Plum-Ucci, 72)
This proves that Leandra uses relational bullying by saying that Ali is having sex with a boon and becoming a boon, and not giving her a chance to express herself and tell her the truth about why she has leaves in her hair and the reason for her wearing the suede doodad. Therefore, Leandra uses relational bullying and she judges others before she even has met them in person.
Although physical and relational bullying can hurt, verbal bullying can sometimes hurt the most. Renée verbally bullies other kids in school, who are not friends with her. She is perceived as a nice girl who is the daughter of the town police chief, but some people she can be as bad as Bo. When Renee meets Ali at the WaWa, Renee gets up in Ali’s face and verbally bullies her by calling her a slut because of the rumors...