A Child In An Adult's Shadow

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When schoolchildren tell their parents that they are being bullied or made fun of at school, their parents would recite the age-old idiom, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” But does that saying hold true? Paul Zimmer's “Zimmer in Grade School” and Marge Piercy's “Barbie Doll” show two examples of children who are adversely affected by the opinions of others. Both poems are about how bullying does not just affect a person at the time of incident, but how it also the victim well into adolescence and adulthood. Piercy's poem is about a girl that was bullied because of her appearances and Zimmer's poem is about a boy made fun of for his awkwardness and poor academic performance. Even though both examples are of youths being bullied, the poems detail how the harsh words still stick with them years after the bullying stopped. It is important to note that the bullying of both Piercy's and Zimmer's characters occurs in their childhood. When young children start going to school, they are being exposed to an interactive environment with a large number of other young children for the first time. Naturally, some kids are going to be bullied. Zimmer's character, who had a “square nose streaming mucus and blood”, was beat by the school's nun, and did not perform well at school, was considered an awkward child. Piercy's character was also considered awkward due to her “great big nose and fat legs.” These children are sensitive enough to begin with, but being bullied at a young age may distort their perception on people at an early age. Not only that, but they will have a flawed self-image and a lower self-esteem from the start. Although the bullying occurred during a very young age, this experience was somewhat traumatic for both characters. The resulting low self-esteem stayed with them after childhood and developed into something else when
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