Believe it or not, the actions of a person deeply affect the decisions they make and how they deal with conflicts. Characters, just like the people in “The Bully” are affected by their actions/events and it shows their true character. Likewise, “The Bully”, By Roger Dean Kiser, uses thoughts/conversations to show the feelings of the characters and how they respond to events and conflicts. Very early on, it becomes clear to the reader that the author and the director use actions/events and thoughts/conversations to develop the theme and further the importance of forgiveness.
To commence, the author of “The Bully” uses actions/events because this literary element along with thoughts/conversations and can showcase the importance of forgiveness as the universal message. To summarize, in “The Bully” the main character’s name is Roger and he walks into a diner. In doing so a couple who happened to be right beside the door noticed him. “I said as I reached down and grabbed him around the waist and carefully raised him up into the passenger seat of the van.”, is evidence from the text to support my thesis. As an illustration, he reached over and grabbed both of his hands and squeezed them tightly, which furthers my citation. Similarly, after the incident the couple walk back to their car and prepare to head off. Roger walks over and asks what the problem is as he sees the two. The directors makes it so that the two appear to be having a friendly conversation, and Roger hands Tony his phone number so that the two of them can catch up later. For instance, the two tell each other to take care before Tony and his wife drive off. To bring to light, these two sources both are forms of the literary element, “Actions/events”. Furthermore, both sources and citations support the fact that the universal message for “The Bully” is forgiveness. Thus, the author uses actions/events to showcase the importance of forgiveness.
Equally as important, the author uses “thoughts/conversations” to showcase the importance of forgiveness in the text and develop the theme. To summarize, Roger is greeted by Tony’s wife as he sits down to order some food and asked if he remembers Roger. Tony at that moment could not remember anything about a person named Roger and politely said no. The author says goodbye to Roger and his wife, “I hope he calls me sometime. He will be the only friend that I have from my high school days.”. This illustrates, “Give me a call sometimes. We'll do lunch," I told him. We both laughed.”. Similarly, Rogers meets up with Roger and they talk to each other. Tony asks Roger if him being in a wheelchair was how he felt being bullied by Tony back then, and Roger says that at least Tony has someone to help push him around and love him. After Tony and his wife leave Roger thinks to himself, “I was glad to have made the choice today to show kindness to Tony, instead of returning cruelty to the bully. “. To bring to light, these two citations easily relate to the literary element of “thoughts/conversations”. Furthermore, they work to help develop the theme and further showcase forgiveness. As a result, the literary element “thoughts/conversations” along with the other element work together to show the importance of forgiveness.
In final analysis, successful stories are the ones that incorporate all the elements and rhetorical devices to plot. To reiterate, the author and the director use actions/events and thoughts/conversations to develop the theme and further the importance of forgiveness. Actions/events reveals to the reader Tony’s condition and Roger’s point of view. In addition, thoughts/conversations shows the reader Tony’s apology for bullying Roger and Roger’s past experiences as a child. It is safe to say that successful authors utilize techniques like thoughts/conversations and actions/events to create a story worth reading and to engage readers, like me!