There were two very serious issues presented in the novel Stotan. Racism and abuse are two dangerous forms of bullying. Anybody could suffer from racism and abuse. Lots of normal looking people who you wouldn't think would ever be suffering from a form of this bullying could be. Nortie and his family are the main victims of abuse throughout the book. They are so used to being abused and beaten by their father that it almost seem natural and they don't fight back at all. Abuse is such a serious problem in that family that Nortie had to go to the hospital a few times. They lied and didn't say anything about their father causing the damage. Nortie even had to move out at the end of the book because of how bad he got beat up by his dad. Worst of all, Nortie's brother commited suicide because he couldn't take any more beatings from his Dad. I think abuse is an incredibly serious issue that characters in this book aren't realizing. Nortie can't even live a normal life because of his father always beating him and his mother. He always has to be worrying about them getting hurt without even being able to stand up for himself, or his mother because of how bad it is.
The second issue presented in this book is that their is racism throughout the book. Nortie's Dad and Marty (the star baseball player on the Frost High School team and Nortie's enemy) are both very racist. Marty delivers out these newspapers that prejudice and judge against black people. He even puts them out in the school. Luckily Ms. Stevens, a black woman, works at the school and tries to help stop the newspapers getting spread around. Nortie's girlfriend, Mililika, is a black girl who gets a lot of nasty and dirty comments thrown about her. Nortie is made fun of about this because of going out with a black girl. I think that this is a very serious issue that should never happen in school. Kids shouldn't be prejudiced against because of the color of their skin. I feel sad that kids like this have to fall victim to racism and bullying. It is very unfair to judge or beat on someone just because you had a bad day or aren't feeling good. Those are some issues that need to be delt with in this book.
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4 comments:
I agree completely. I think that it is absolutely ridiculous that throughout the ENTIRE book, no one reacts to Nortie’s beatings as abnormal at all, and I think that is horrible! They should at least SAY something throughout the book, about how he shouldn’t take that crap!!! And the whole racism issue even made me feels sad, that those guys would be as pathetic as to judge people by the color of their skin, rather than who they are. Really good blog
Thanks. I think that it is ridiculous also. Not even his mom sticks up for him by leaving the dad or anything. That is a huge problem that nobody even takes seriously at all. I hope that racism isn't as bad as it was in that book anymore. Hopefully people understand that it is the person on the inside that defines you, not what you look like on the outside.
Very good David your ideas on racism and abuse were very informed and I had the exact same feelings when I read this book. I was horrified at the thought of picking on someone just because they looked different than you do. Abuse in this book also appalled me and I became disfunctional after reading those sections.
I also became dysfunctional when I read these parts. I can't believe that people can treat their own family like that. What also appalled me was the fact that many people don't even think that they are being abused when they actually are. They just keep going back to that person and don't realize how bad they are getting hurt. If I was being abused by someone, I would definitely tell someone and leave them. It just doesn't make sense to me that they don't realize they are being abused. Thanks for your comment Nathan.
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