A few weeks ago, I received an email from PEN America informing me that Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult had been
banned in some places. The notification piqued my curiosity, so I requested the
book from my local library. In the story there is a school shooting in which
several people die. However, the book is not about gun legislation. The novel focuses
on an issue that is often neglected: bullying.
After reading the beginning of the novel, I
wondered if I would be motivated enough to finish it. Why? The reason for my
skepticism was that the behaviors of the teenagers showed an astounding degree
of shallowness and frivolity. Their relationships were superficial and devoid
of empathy and curiosity about the world around them. Their purpose was to be
popular and to denigrate those who were different from them.
The teenagers at Sterling High School behave
in ways that follow a tyrannical set of social hierarchies in which a few
students are considered "popular" and of higher status, and the ones who do not
fit in are abused and treated with disrespect and contempt. Bullying is
normalized as part of this “culture.”
My thirst for justice along with Jodi Picoult’s captivating writing style held my interest, so I finished the read with a flow of reflections and the motivation to research the topic of bullying further, to support those who are trapped in this horrifying pattern.
My thirst for justice was not quenched when I reached the end of the novel.
The read left me with a sense of hopelessness.
Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes deserves
attention and can be used to share honest discussions on the issue of bullying
in schools and everywhere.
Peter
Houghton was only five years old when he became the target of school bullies, on
his first day of kindergarten. It was heartbreaking to learn that his Superman
lunch box was thrown out the school bus window. No adult cared to intervene to
help him. Peter was bullied on a daily basis for many years:
“From that first day in kindergarten, Peter
experienced a daily barrage of taunting, tormenting, threatening and bullying.
This child had been stuffed into lockers, had his head shoved into toilets. He
had been tripped and punched and kicked. He had a private email spammed out to
an entire school. He’s had his pants pulled down in the middle of the school
cafeteria. Peter’s reality was a world where, no matter what he did—no matter
how small and insignificant he made himself—he was still always the victim. And
as a result, he started to turn into an alternate world: one created by himself
in the safety of HTML code. Peter set up his own website, created video games
and filled them with the kind of people he wished were surrounding him.”
Somehow his creative skills and sensitive nature were not valued by the standards of the school he attended.
It was
shocking to read how the parents of the teenagers portrayed in the novel were
detached from their own children. The communication between parents and
teenagers lacked authenticity. It was as superficial as the relationships with
the teenagers’ school friends.
The
teenagers did not communicate with their parents in genuine ways; a false sense
of independence appears to cloud the potential for honest conversations between
parents and teenagers. Hiding away issues from their parents is considered an
acceptable indicator of their sense of independence. This detachment stems from
the false notion of providing that state of the so-called independence. It is used
to excuse, ignore and/or condone all kinds of behaviors that taint their
process of growth and maturation. Some of these teenagers become sexually
active at age 15, drink alcohol, take drugs and/or resort to all kinds of
senseless behaviors at school. In some cases, their parents seem to condone or
ignore these behaviors; they even seem to consider them acceptable or
inevitable.
At
school, these teenagers did not have any kind of guide on how to behave toward
one another. In fact, the school environment resembled that of a prison. It
reminded me of John Taylor Gatto’s book Dumbing us Down, which I read
over ten years ago, in which he compared schools to prisons.
The
fact that school staff are complicit in the bullying or even choose to punish
Peter when he defends himself and never advocate for him leaves a very distressing feeling in the reader.
For example, the gym teacher has a very
distorted view of bullying. Dusty Spears, the gym teacher at Sterling School,
understands bullies and is on their side. He thinks that bullying is a normal
part of growing up and that bullies are supposed to be rewarded. This is
clearly stated on page 656 of the large print edition, “Dusty Spears
understands kids like Drew Girard because he had once been one. The way he saw
it, bullies either were good enough to get football scholarships to big ten
schools, where they could make the business connections...”
One of the main characters is Josie Cormier.
Her behavior changes through the years. She used to be Peter’s best friend, but
during her teenage years, her behavior shifts in unpredictable ways as a result
of a toxic relationship with her boyfriend and her motivation to be one of the
popular girls. She becomes the girlfriend of one of the most violent bullies:
Matt Royston. The most disturbing aspect of their relationship is that he
abuses her emotionally and even threatens her physically. Everybody thinks they
have an ideal romantic relationship when this is not the case. Matt and Josie
are sexually active and Josie’s mother appears to be okay with that.
Picoult exposes the abuse of Josie by Matt Royston by showing it through various unsettling situations, but Picoult does little to discuss the matter openly through the characters in a direct way to avoid the normalization of such a toxic relationship. I feel this is a weakness of the book.
The relationship between Josie Cormier and
Matt Royston calls for a thorough discussion about respect in romantic
relationships. I was expecting that
would happen at some point, but it never happened. The way I see it, this void
in the book requires the work of mentors, parents, teachers and counselors.
I was hoping and expecting that Alex,
Josie’s mother, would have an insightful conversation with Josie on this, and
that there would be a reflection on the relationship that was masked as “love.”
The book was published in 2007. Has bullying
changed since then? Are schools doing more to address it? As I researched the topic to write this blog
post, I was shocked to find an endless list of children and teenagers who
committed suicide after they had been bullied. You can check this link yourself to verify
my statement:
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=h_&q=cases+of+children+who+committed+suicide+after+being+bullied&ia=web
If you come across people who underestimate
and dismiss the serious effects of bullying, I encourage you to educate the
deniers on the impact that bullying has. First of all, bullying is not a normal
part of growing up. Bullying can lead to depression, anxiety, post-traumatic
stress disorder, and other consequences. It can lead to suicidal ideation, and
even suicide. It can rarely cause what Peter did. Peter followed the pressure
of the social context in which he grew up and ended up doing what he did…
There is a twist at the end of the novel that could have
been fleshed out to shed light on the abusive relationship that Matt had with
Josie, but not much is said about it.
As explained in an article published by
Frontiers in Public Health in 2019 bullying may include verbal hostility,
teasing, physical violence and social exclusion, and the consequences of
bullying can be severe:
“Many studies have found that bullying is the
root of severe negative psychological and physical consequences, including
depression, anxiety, reduced self-esteem, decreased school attendance,
somatization, as well as suicide, suicide ideation and attempts.” Some
researchers claim that school bullying can cause symptoms such as those
experienced by survivors of child maltreatment and abuse. It can even hamper
bio-psycho-social growth.
When bullying happens there is an imbalance of
power between the perpetrator and victim, which can lead into a sense of
helplessness and weakness. The pattern of bullying can undermine a victim’s
sense of self and can cause short-term and long-term consequences.
Why do bullies bully? They bully because they can. Lea Page says that it takes a village to make a bully… and it takes a village to stop one. Nineteen Minutes elucidates the roles that bystanders play in the social dynamics of bullying. I am now referring to those who witness the bullying without standing up to the bully. Some of the onlookers feel fear and guilt due to their own lack of response, so it is important to discuss this topic and to address it. Banning a book that deals with the topic is not the solution. Some bystanders celebrate the bully. They even support the bully and act in ways that perpetuate the pattern of bullying. I noticed that the “popular” girls had a positive attitude toward the revolting behaviors of Matt Royston and Drew Girard. They celebrated them.
When
dangerous behaviors are normalized and celebrated, the pattern of bullying is
established, creating an atmosphere where respect and kindness no longer
matter.
In 2016 somebody said that he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and his supporters would still support him. Take a moment to reflect on this comment. What does it imply? This
comment was made by a presidential candidate: Donald Trump. It implies that
violence is acceptable in the eyes of his supporters. It implies that as
long as he is responsible for the violence, his supporters will condone it and
normalize it. This is dangerous. How can we teach ethical behaviors to children
and teenagers when a pattern is set to make it acceptable for a man to do this? How is it acceptable to make him president? There is no way we can live in a civilized
society when we empower a bully. In fact, one of his own 2016 supporters
even tried to shoot him recently, which proves my point. (What goes around,
comes around).
The
girls who cheered Matt Royston are not different from the adult women who
celebrate and support a bully trying to become president, so I can see a
pattern that needs to be addressed, because the ways adults behave are not
ignored by teenagers, and they will make a difference in the way we live our
lives.
I hope
this blog post will be a helpful resource to raise awareness on the topic of
bullying. Bullying awareness month is coming up, so this is an opportunity to
work to both prevent and address bullying in schools and everywhere.
Supplementary links:
https://hr.nih.gov/working-nih/civil/national-bullying-awareness-month
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/daughter-bullied-school-adult-bystanders_n_664fcce1e4b058247fa22914#
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6465416/
https://time.com/4191598/donald-trump-says-he-could-shoot-somebody-and-not-lose-voters/
https://www.cnn.com/2016/01/23/politics/donald-trump-shoot-somebody-support/index.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/adriana-kuch-new-jersey-online-attack-video-four-charged/
