Keep searching for the beauty on the inside
But don’t forget to paint the beauty on the outside.
We all know
We all know
What sells to the crowd.
In this free verse poem, Brody explores the bullying that is implicit in society and societal expectations. She specifically addresses the societal expectations that are place upon women in terms of physical beauty. Brody makes it clear that society values outward beauty—the beauty of one’s face and body—over inward beauty—the beauty of one’s soul and actions. She suggests that physical beauty sells; people don’t want to know the secrets of your soul, but rather the secrets to smooth skin and svelte figures. This, Brody argues, is the root of many forms of bullying. People judge each other based on looks alone, rather than on actions, beliefs, and dedication. This quotation, therefore, ultimately suggests that until society can learn to value inner beauty, individuals will always be singled out and bullied for their perceived outer beauty.
Fifteen years later. My heart really does start to break.
In this poem, Megan Kelley Hall details her late-life experiences with bullying. She explains that it was not until college—when she thought she’d escaped the heartlessness of public education—that she truly experienced bullying for the first time. The utter stress of Kelley Hall’s experience affects her emotionally and physically—so much so that she requires surgery to repair damage to her heart. During Kelley Hall’s bullying experience, she felt as if her heart was literally breaking. And it turns out it was. This quotation therefore captures the physical damage that can be caused by bullying; it takes a tremendous toll on the body—both emotionally and physically.
Threatening smiles. Sickening laughter. All because I wouldn’t kiss him.
After she rejects the unwelcome advances of one her male classmates, author A.S. King describes the relentless bullying she received as a result of this single rejection. She details how her classmates and teammates began to spread rumors of her being a lesbian—how these rumors led to feelings of self-loathing and isolation. The extent of this unimaginable cruelty is captured in this quotation, during which King describes the threatening smiles and laughter of her bullies. She punctuates her experience by reiterating that all of the cruelty, brutality, and malice was simply because she wouldn’t kiss a boy who never had a right to her body in the first place. This, in turn, captures the unimaginable mercilessness and needlessness of bullying.
I write humor because I’m not comfortable with emotion.
Lucienne Diver, author of “Abuse,” explains in her foreword that she suffered from relentless bullying throughout her school years due to her lisp. Though Diver, herself, admits that bullying in any form is far from funny, she uses humor in her poem because the humor serves as a mask and a shield from the true pain and suffering that she experienced in adolescence. This humor is meant to shield ourselves from further pain, by redirecting the rejections and cruelty of others. Therefore, in this quotation, Diver reflects upon one of the infallibilities of the human conditions; we use humor to deflect raw, deep, and painful emotions from others and ourselves.
