TOW#18: A Boy Saw A Classmate Getting Horribly Bullied. It’s What Happened 4 Years Later That Made Me Cry

            Just Say "Hello"

          The hardest thing to do is the easiest thing to do. An inspiring but untrue story tells of a boy named Kyle who is bullied. He carries multiple books to and from school and a bully always knocks them down and calls him a nerd. One day, a classmate sees this and goes up to help him when no one else did. Many others may have avoided to help Kyle because they were afraid that they might look like a “loser”. Little did the classmate know that Kyle was on his way home to kill himself that night. But the classmate saved him. In this short anecdote, the author appeals to ethos and uses suspense to show that good deeds have greater outcomes than one would imagine.

            The author appeals to ethos by speaking in first-person to show his credibility towards the story and show a more emotional insight to the character. It says, “As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him. They ran at him, knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping him so he landed in the dirt. His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten feet from him. He looked up and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes. My heart went out to him.” This shows how the character felt and the reasons for him going up and helping him. By speaking in first-person, the reader is able to understand the character’s feelings better and have empathy, rather than if it said, “He felt this, so he did this.” Speaking in first-person also makes the story more believable and touching. Thus, the author's first-person perspective gives the story more of a personal feel and credible. 

            The author uses suspense in order to lure in the reader’s attention to make the story more exciting. During graduation, as it states in the story, the character, Kyle, says,  “‘I am going to tell you a story’.” By saying this, the audience can predict that he is going to talk about how he was bullied and his encounter of his first friend. But since he says “story”, the reader is able to predict that there is more to the story than the first time they met, which is true. Kyle goes on and talks about how he was on his way home to kill himself, but one person helped him from the bullies, which ultimately saved his life. This shows that by using suspense, the author is able to grab the reader’s attention and give more to the reader than they were expecting.

            This was not a true story. But then why would the author write it? Bullying has become a serious issue and many people have been ignoring this fact. Therefore the author decides to write a story with a moral, which is that good deeds have greater outcomes than one would expect. He shows this by appealing to ethos and using suspense. A simple “hello” can save someone’s life.  

Picture used for the story 

(http://avmediastudio.com/blog/a-boy-saw-a-classmate-getting-horribly-bullied-its-what-happened-10-years-later-that-made-me-cry/)