Bullying is described as the use superior strength or influence to intimidate (someone), typically to force him or her to do what one wants. Within the short stories,” The White Circle” by John Bell Clayton,” The Day I Followed” by Eric Luper, and” Bully on the Ledge” by Kurtis Scaletta,someone has to overcome the obstacles of being bullied, or the bully themselves, and admittedly regretting it in the end. The common thread in these three short stories is to think about your decisions before you make them a reality and end up regretting them in the cessation of everything.
In “The White circle,”by John Bell Clayton, Anvil, a poor boy who has an abusive father, is caught stealing apples from a boy named Tucker’s apple tree. Later in the story, Tucker talks about when he had befriended Anvil after he observed the hurting that lay over Anvil due to his father’s sadistic beating that he inflicted on him while he was at school. Though Tucker tries to help, Anvil shows no regrets towards Tucker and eventually pushes Tucker over the edge when Tucker tries to kill Anvil. After the near escape of Anvil with his life, Tucker felt the weight of regret settle upon his…
During the story, the main character, the author, talks about his experiences through being bullied, and then having become one himself. Scaletta states,”I’m not ashamed of having been bullied…my shame is having ever joined in the abuse.” Here, Scaletta is talking about the regret he has toward bullying others which, again, connects back to the common thread of these stories. Another relevant example of this common thread in this short story is when Scaletta mentions his different experiences of when he bullied others and how he regretted those words and actions that he said and…
