The School Bully

[Joy]

*appears out of nowhere*

Greetings, Kapeefers! I’m going to peak my head out of my hiatus for a second to ask some questions:

In my children’s books, I have a school bully, and lately I have been considering giving him a bigger part of my books. So my questions are: What are the motives of a bully? What are the literary cliches of a bully? And do you have any ideas to make him not-cliche? He doesn’t fight physically unless provoked, but he taunts the MCs quite often (quite cliche, eh?).

And some tags: @valtmy  @dragon-snapper  @princessfoo  @sam-kowal  @rochellaine  @skredder  @supermonkey42  @seekjustice  @jane-maree  @audrey-caylin  @anyone!

Thanks, guys!

*poof*

You can pronounce it however you want.

[Sam Kowal]

@dekreel 😀 Hi

I think the motivations of a bully are usually a) to feel good about themselves and feel powerful and b) to try to put down anyone who might threaten them or make them feel bad.

This is because, I think for the most part bullying comes out of insecurity. Bullies are insecure about themselves, they don’t get enough love from figures in their own life, and this makes them feel scared or hateful. Because of this, they bully others, to tell themselves that they really are stronger than anyone else.

When you are mean to someone else or make them scared, this puts you in a position of power, and this power is what bullies are looking for. When they bully someone, they feel strong and in control, and this provides relief for their own weaknesses which they are scared of.

I think bullies often act out too because they want to put down anyone who is a threat to them; and by this I mean not a threat as in someone bullying back, but a threat to their feelings. Maybe the bully is jealous of someone who is more talented than they are; maybe they are angry at someone who has loving parents. Maybe they it isn’t fair that someone else has a good life and they don’t; so then they get angry at that person and bully them.

Most times, I think bullying comes from an inner place of hurt or jealousy, and to satisfy their jealousy or feel powerful, someone will become a bully and take their feelings out on another person.

 

 

*Giarstanornarak tries to melt chair*
Also, Daeus has 22 turtles in his signature.

[Sam Kowal]

@dekreel Oh, and… cliches. Personally I think having bullies be physically brawny/thuggish is a cliche, and also having them be unintelligent. They can be different from that

*Giarstanornarak tries to melt chair*
Also, Daeus has 22 turtles in his signature.

[Skredder]

@dekreel Well, one cliche for bullies is that they are actually weak and pick on others to make themselves appear stronger. I once heard a really cool quote that was along the lines of “The weak hurt and bully. The strong protect.”

Other motives is that they are bored, they’re trying to strike out in rebellion, they truly hate the person they bully (for many different reasons), they’re trying to distance themselves from those people, they’re pressured to, they’re trying to stamp down a part of themselves that they either hate or want to hide.

The biggest cliche of bullies that I can think of is that they always have a posse. They always have a group of guys with him, protecting him or trying to encourage him.

That’s all I can think of at the moment. 🙂

"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

[Ben Powell]

@dekreel I agree with @sam-kowal on the motives of a bully.

For a not-cliched bully, here are some ideas:

• The bully is actually very intelligent and uses that fact to bully others (maybe his parents think he should stop reading and such all the time and learn how to do something “useful” instead, so he bullies less intelligent kids to make himself feel better.)
• Instead of just being mean or knocking books out of people’s hands, the bully could be more sneaky about it. Maybe he pretends to be nice to someone and then betrays them and makes them look stupid.
• The bully doesn’t have to be a boy.
• Instead of having a group of supporters, maybe the bully is the outsider and he bullies everyone else to try to get back at them. Of course, this would only make the others avoid the bully, making him even more of an outsider.

A Kapeefer for life!
Compendium of KP Literature: kapeeferliterature.wordpress.com

[MNValentine]

@dekreel Tricky question. I have a bully in my current novel who plays a fairly small role, but it was hard to figure out how to write him without making him feel cheesy. This is what I’ve found

First, recognize that a lot of bully cliches are cliches for a reason. These things are true in real life, so they should be true in a book. This isn’t to say that some of them aren’t true, but a lot of them are.

Next, you’re already on the right track making him not be physically violent. That’s true to life. In movies, bullying is kind of like this: Bully walks up and says something mean. Hero punches bully or bully punches hero. Big fight. In real life, bullies are more prone to use verbal abuse. I did this and wasn’t entirely sure whether it was accurate (It is for girls, but I wasn’t sure about for boys) but then my dad said something about it and apparently I was right.

A good bully in a book is Draco Malfoy. He’s sneaky and self-obsessed and uses trickery and bluffing and general better-than-you attitude to get Harry into trouble. I’m sure I can think of other literary bullies but I’m having trouble right now…

Basically do what you’re doing, and take some of the other advice people have given 😀

Silence! Silence everyone, for the king's speech!

[Ariel Ashira]

@supermonkey42 Good point!  Bullies don’t have to be boys. 🙂

@dekreel I can’t think of anything to add to what has already been said.  They nailed it!  Helped me, too.

"In a mask, was he?"

[The fledgling Artist]

@dekreel well i’m not actually gonna say most of what I was gonna say as it’s already been said (probably with more eloquence)

But I think a huge part of what might cause someone to bully has to do with them just not understanding how to handle their destructive emotions. Where those hurtful feelings come from could be anything- but I think a common source is bad family life. Anyway they don’t know what to do with all the intense hurt and so they lash out. (Bully characters are actually really tragic)

My favorite (I guess its a trope?) is when the main character shows them kindness and the bully starts to open up. (This can be done in a cheesy way.. And i’m not completely sure what the difference is between the well done, or cheesy way.. Maybe if it feels forced and ungenuine?) And then they join the main characters ‘squad’ 🙂

I think my least favorite way bullies are handles is when they are treated like a joke.. Not that it’s wrong to use them for comic relief.. But (I’m not sure how to explain it but I feel like there is a line between the occasional humorous scenario.. And treating the bully like they are anything less then the tragic character I believe them to be/Not a real person/a total joke. ) ??

I didn’t realize I had such strong feelings about bully characters until now. So I guess thanks for asking your question dekreel. 🙂 If this didn’t help at all, then at the very least I realized something about myself.

and I was so confused

[valtmy]

@dekreel

I think the others have already given some very good responses so these are just my two cents:

#1: Think of other reasons for your bully to torment people apart from the cliche weakness, jealous or insecurity. For example, some usually nice people that I know unintentionally become bullies when a new person intrudes on the comfortable group dynamics they have with their friends (clique behaviour) and they end up ignoring the new person etc. Being open to the idea that anyone can be a bully (not just a certain type of person) and exploring what how ordinary people can act as bullies can help you find non-cliche motivations for your character.

#2: Don’t make your bully obsessed with your main characters. This just makes the bully character seem flat with no inner life of his own. If nothing else, he probably has other kids to pick on.

#3: To be non-cliche, try giving your bully character some respectability by giving him a skill that he is objectively better at than your main characters. Do not have your main characters surpass him in this and do not cheat with this (e.g. if you are making him smarter than the main characters, do not turn around and suddenly say that the only reason he gets good grades is because his parents donated lots of money to the school). To make this even more impressive, make the bully’s skill something that is relevant in solving one or two problems the characters encounter in the plot.

#4: Avoid cliche bully dialogue (e.g. “You’re just a girl”, “You think you can beat me?”).

#5: Think about how your bully justifies himself and gets away with his bullying (otherwise he should have gotten into trouble with the teachers long ago). Lots of bullies are able to disguise their tormenting as ordinary, socially acceptable behaviours. For example, he might make a mean remark about someone’s appearance and say that he is “just being honest” (he may thus even think of his flaws as virtues). Alternatively, he can make a cruel joke or do a prank at someone else’s expense but because it is genuinely funny, other people laugh and when the victim is offended, the bully just says that they should “lighten up”. Suddenly everything is apparently the victim’s fault for not having a sense of humour and the bully gets away with it.

#6: If the bully has his comeuppance, make it well-deserved and short and sweet. If the bully seems to suffer more than what’s warranted for his actions and the main characters gloat about it for pages and pages, reader sympathy might get shifted.

Wow I think I wrote way longer than I planned to.

[SleepwalkingMK]

Ooo, interesting topic, @dekreel.
I want to expand a bit on something @notawriter said – often bullying comes from family life. I know this firsthand; I know many small children who are bullies in some way. They usually act differently around adults, or at church, if they go. But family problems is a huge thing, especially if it is the father (and in my context, it’s usually the father). These kids grow up in families in which the father/both parents don’t care about each other or their kids as they should. Sometimes one or both drink or gamble. But when these kids grow up in such an environment, their father figure acting as a father should not act, and if they don’t have outside influence to help them along a better path, there’s a good chance they’ll do that to others: their siblings, kids at school, animals… Bullying may not just be a way to deal with all the pain, though that certainly usually is part of it; it can also be the go to: that’s what they know to do, and it’s simply tragic.

Also, it doesn’t have to be just clear family issues. If the family a kid comes from looks down on others, or a certain type of people, then that prejudice may very well transfer to the child. I’m thinking Hannibal – perhaps not your typical example, but as his father was Carthage’s top general and absolutely hated Rome (and was not afraid to let everyone know the fact, especially his family), that transferred to Hannibal. Another example perhaps closer to home is @mnvalentine’s example of Draco (though my knowledge of him is limited, so forgive me). His parents are high class, pureblood, and look down on those below them, and this transfers to their son. Children are imitators. And when those closest to them–their parents–act in harmful ways, they may do the same. Of course, it’s lovely when the child doesn’t (and perhaps instead learns to stick up for people, for example), but sometimes bullying is all he knows how to do.

My worst problem with bullies in books is when they have no motive — i.e. just punching/taunting the MC for no reason because viola! conflict, but it seems you’ll definitely avoid that since you’re asking for motives. So kuddos to you for that 😀

Read to explore worlds, write to create them.

[Author]

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