Trezza Azzopardi Sticks and Stones

401 Words2 Pages
The short story ”Sticks and Stones” by Trezza Azzopardi is about the consequences of bullying. The main character of the story, Lewis, is a young man whose past experiences with bullying haunt him in his adult life. The story starts off by describing a dream that Lewis continues to have every single night, about him jumping off a cliff when he was younger and thus having his teeth ripping through his bottom lip. Later, we find out that Lewis used to live in the heart of London as a teacher, with his partner, Anna. As a teacher, Lewis witnesses the collective bullying of one of the new boys, Paul Fry. And although he tries his best to help the poor little Paul Fry, by telling the headmaster and taking notes of what he has seen for instance, he fails to do so. The headmaster brushes what Lewis tells him off by saying that maybe Lewis is exaggerating, and that he might want to consider taking some time off, as his wanting to help Paul Fry has become quite an obsession, just as Anna had stated before him (see page 4, second paragraph). When, on the following day, Paul Fry is found dead (page 4, line 120-122). The incident obviously has a huge impact on Lewis, making him move back home to the countryside where he used to live with his mother. Here, the dream about him jumping off the cliff is much more vivid and in color, and some of Lewis’ much unwanted childhood memories start to surface. The story is told in an omniscient third person narrator, and we see the events play out from Lewis’ point of view. The story is by far dominated by flashbacks, which we need to hear about in order to understand Lewis’ character. Lewis’ life has always been rather turbulent. Being subject to domestic violence carried out by his step-father led him and his mother to flee to the “end of the world” as the mother puts it (page 3, line 88-90). This is the first time that Lewis runs away

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