Bullying. One word sadly often heard in the news nowadays. Unfortunately, it is a phenomenon that has become usual in our everyday lives. This word has a negative overtone and has resulted in so many victims throughout the years. Who has never been a witness to bullying? Who has never been bullied? Who has never bullied someone in some way? Not many people would be able to answer to these questions. The fact is that there are so many types of bullying that almost everyone has taken part in, at least, one of them, maybe without knowing it. The Jamaican writer, Diana McCaulay, has exposed some of them in Dog-Heart, her first book published in 2010. The novel relates the story of Sahara, a middle-class single mother, who tries to help Dexter,
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Firstly there is the bully who is the individual who uses violence or aggression to show her/his power over another (Vanderbilt 2010, 315). Bullies are also described, in the article “Long-term effects of bullying”, as strong and highly popular individuals (2015, 879). The second participant is the bully-victim, who is at the same time an aggressor and a target (Vanderbilt 2010, 315). It basically means that this individual is within the circle of the main bully, which signifies that he/she participates in the acts of bullying but is also sometimes a victim of the bully he/she follows or supports. This individual takes on the two different roles. Hence he/she knows what it feels like to be bullied but does it to others anyway. The last participant of a bullying is the victim who is obviously the bully’s target (Vanderbilt 2010, 315). As said in the introduction, there are different types of bullying. On the one hand, Dr. Pottinger and Dr. Stair (from the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica) point out two types of bullying when it comes to teachers bullying (which they say is similar to student bullying). They describe these types …show more content…
As outlined in the introduction, Dog-heart deals with the complexity of building relationships between people of different social class, backgrounds and who have a different tone in the color of their skin. She tells the story of Sahara, a “browning” uptown single mother, who met Dexter, a young boy from Jacob's pen - a ghetto from Kingston. Dexter was out begging in the parking lot of Sovereign Plaza the night he met Sahara and her son Carl. Sahara gave him five hundred dollars that night for him to eat. Once back to her house, she could not stop thinking about him and how she wanted to help him. A short time after that night, she found out where he and his family lived and started to get involved in their lives. Dexter had one little brother (Marlon) and one baby sister (Lissa). The three of them were living in a tiny wooden house with their mother (Arleen). At first Sahara started to bring them food, but then got so involved in their lives that she was the one making decisions for everyone without taking into consideration their opinions. As the story goes on, the reader realizes that Sahara has taken on the role of the head of the family without even being part of
Firstly there is the bully who is the individual who uses violence or aggression to show her/his power over another (Vanderbilt 2010, 315). Bullies are also described, in the article “Long-term effects of bullying”, as strong and highly popular individuals (2015, 879). The second participant is the bully-victim, who is at the same time an aggressor and a target (Vanderbilt 2010, 315). It basically means that this individual is within the circle of the main bully, which signifies that he/she participates in the acts of bullying but is also sometimes a victim of the bully he/she follows or supports. This individual takes on the two different roles. Hence he/she knows what it feels like to be bullied but does it to others anyway. The last participant of a bullying is the victim who is obviously the bully’s target (Vanderbilt 2010, 315). As said in the introduction, there are different types of bullying. On the one hand, Dr. Pottinger and Dr. Stair (from the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica) point out two types of bullying when it comes to teachers bullying (which they say is similar to student bullying). They describe these types …show more content…
As outlined in the introduction, Dog-heart deals with the complexity of building relationships between people of different social class, backgrounds and who have a different tone in the color of their skin. She tells the story of Sahara, a “browning” uptown single mother, who met Dexter, a young boy from Jacob's pen - a ghetto from Kingston. Dexter was out begging in the parking lot of Sovereign Plaza the night he met Sahara and her son Carl. Sahara gave him five hundred dollars that night for him to eat. Once back to her house, she could not stop thinking about him and how she wanted to help him. A short time after that night, she found out where he and his family lived and started to get involved in their lives. Dexter had one little brother (Marlon) and one baby sister (Lissa). The three of them were living in a tiny wooden house with their mother (Arleen). At first Sahara started to bring them food, but then got so involved in their lives that she was the one making decisions for everyone without taking into consideration their opinions. As the story goes on, the reader realizes that Sahara has taken on the role of the head of the family without even being part of