Embarrassment The Impacts of Social Bullying as Seen Through the Victim of Social Bullying

“I bet Mama would like to do that with me,” Elsie said. DeClements, 1981: 14 Since she considers that her mother does not really like her, Elsie thinks that her mother will do the same with Jenny’s family do toward their kitten. She has low self-esteem, and here, she starts to lose her self-respect. The word ‘bet’ shows her certain feeling about what her mother can do toward her. She does not feel the acceptance from her mother. Lerner, Easterbrooks, and Mistry state in the book Handbook of Psychology that “ a young child’s assertion of self-will is a newly discovered self-conscious sense inspiring reflection and requiring expression and respect from others” 2003: 104. In this case, Elsie does not receive enough caring from her mother. She feels that her mother does not like her either. According to Ellen J. Langer, Ph. D, “the person with self-respect simply likes her- or himself” Langer, www.psychologytoday.comarticles199911self- esteem-vs-self-respect, 2011. In this level, Elsie is brave enough to bet. Being able to bet means there is an understanding and acceptance that she is not too bad to be compared to kitten. Relating the words by Ellen J. Langer, Ph. D, “to respect something, on the other hand, is to accept it” Langer, www.psychologytoday.comarticles199911 self-esteem-vs-self-respect, 2011. She indirectly accept the idea of placing her as kitten. She does not respect herself as a girl but a kitten. When I returned to Elsie, she still had her eyes closed. I held out the pin. “Here. You can fix your skirt.” Elsie didn’t seem to hear. She slid down the wall to the floor and sat there in a huge lump, her head drooping ever her lap, tears falling onto her skirt. ..... “Well... your mother and your sister and your friends.” “Not my mother, not my sister, and I don’t have any friends.” Elsie wiped her nose with her arm. DeClements, 1981: 50 Here, the classmates mock her making she feels sad and depressed of the condition. She cries and takes herself alone. After Jenny comes seeing her, Jenny tries to talk with her, but in this part, Elsie states words showing no one likes her. Elsie feels that everyone denies her appearance. Her mother does not like her because she is fat, either her sister does even she thinks she can be treated like Jenny’s kitten. Her classmates hates her because she steals the money. In this part, Elsie feels alone. She does not feel she is close enough to the others. Elsie didn’t bother to answer. We sat there beside each other, silently. “Elsie,” I said, “I’ll be your friend.” She turned her head slowly to look at me. “What for?” “Why do you want a thief for a friend? Why do you want a fat slob who sits and stuffs her face?” “I’m sorry I said those things. Can we be friends?” I smiled cheerfully at her. DeClements, 1981: 52 After the bullying done before, mocking Elsie as a thief, she feels that being a thief is a bad thing. Here, when Jenny wants to be her friend, she feels that this thing is weird. She starts to lose the respect for herself. She feels herself as a thief, and no body wants to be thief’s friend. The way Jenny restates Elsie a thief DeClements, 1981: 44 results an impact. Elsie considers herself as a thief. She comes as a person believing that a thief like her has no right to have a friend. She does not believe she can have friends in the condition like that. Neil Thompson states “if we do not demonstrate self-respect by standing up for our rights, then we make it difficult for other people to respect us 2002: 42. In this part, she does not defend her self anymore, oppositely, she determines the word ‘thief’. She believes no one wants her coming as her or his friend. This impact of social bullying shows the reader that bullying can harm one’s feeling and confidence.

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION

People sometimes think that bullying is not a serious problem. They mostly underestimate the impact toward the victim of bullying. In Barthe DeClement’s Nothing’s Fair in Fifth Grade, the writer finds out that social bullying gives impacts toward the victim. Here, the writer of the study concludes the answers to the problems. There are three part on conclusion based on the answers of this study. The first part is that the writer analyzes the description of the characters. The writer finds that Elsie, as the main character and the victim of social bullying, is a noncompliant girl. It is based on her behaviour to disobey and to be ignorant with the rules and condition around her. She tries to break her diet even steal the class money to buy candies. She buys the candies to fulfill her willingness to eat. The other characters, Jenny, Sharon, and Diane, are described as unfriendly girls toward Elsie. They hate Elsie’s physical apperance, the fact that Elsie is fat, and behaviour. They hate Elsie and mock her inside and outside the school. They try to keep distant with Elsie. The second part shows that social bullying is done in the story. The social bullying in the story is divided into two parts. They are direct verbal aggresion and indirect aggresion. Direct verbal aggresions can be seen by looking at the action done by Elsie’s classmates, including Jenny, Sharon, and Diane. Jack says that Elsie is a hog. Another boy says that Elsie is a scrounge. The doers of social