Margot: A Short Story

Sophie introduces herself in the story as a nerdy, outcasted teenage girl, “I always thought of myself as a free-floating one-celled amoeba, minding my own business. The other kids at school were all parts of a larger organism. . . Not particularly noticed, definitely not appreciated, just an amoeba swimming around aimlessly” (9). Sophie feels as if she does not belong where she grew up, she has always felt like she was on the outside. Her father, a drug dealer and felon, left her mother when she was first born. Because of her extreme self-esteem issues, Sophie blames herself for her father leaving. She recalls what she believes happened when she was born, “When Mom was a teenager, I started making her belly fat. And then my dad left. And then I was born too soon. And he came back to get us.

Melinda Sordino was just a young teenage girl trying to have some fun. Now, she is loathed by afar for something nobody understands. During a summer party, Melinda drunkenly fumbled for the phone and dialed the cops. As she enters her freshman year of high school, her friends refuse to talk to her, and she escapes into the dark forests of her mind. “I am Outcast” (Anderson 4). But something about that party was not right. Something she tried not to relive but to forget. “I have worked so hard to forget every second of that stupid party, and here I am in the middle of a hostile crowd that hates me for what I had to do. I can’t tell them what really happened. I can’t even look at that part of myself” (Anderson 28). Depression is a

As a result, Margot would always separate herself from others. She would not participate enough on school, not unless “they sang about the sun and [Margot will] move her lips.”(Ray Bradbury) This indicates that she’s longing on the life she had on Earth, because of that she suffers from despair and struggles to adapt on her environment. Similarly for those who are victims of bullying, they would tend to endure the pain. They would let themselves get hurt, until it crush and affect themselves both physically and mentally.

“It was a mistake.” These words were expressed so confidently with an unwavering voice and the belief of honesty in her best friend’s own words. While it normally takes the average person more than once to learn from his or her mistakes, her best friend, Karman, still has yet to realize her wrongdoings. It became a routine for her--keeping secrets from the other and becoming distant. With every passing day, another excuse found its way to Claudia. Claudia grew increasingly irritated at Karman’s constant trivial reasons for being distant. As she continued to resent Karman for not giving her enough attention, Claudia realized that being angry doesn’t hurt anybody as much as it hurts herself and that the only way to move on from this situation is to have a conversation with Karman. When Claudia eventually talked to Karman about her problem, Karman understood and explained to Claudia that she has been having family problems. Karman was sorry that she did not consider their friendship and will in the future. Both Claudia and Karman experienced epiphanies. Claudia had an epiphany that silently fuming only perpetuated unpleasant feelings and that it is better to talk out your feelings rather than keeping it to yourself.

Although the physical abuse left scars, the verbal abuse was frequently thrown at her. Whether it was from her father, or her classmates she is consistently reminded what an outsider she was.

All of the students looked at Margot with saddened faces. “We were so caught up in the moment of the sun coming out,” a boy said. “We didn’t mean to have you miss the sun, we thought you were lying.” Margot looked like she was inside of a blender, and all of the knives were cutting her up. She was tired and beaten. Her hair was all frizzy, and she had some bumps on her shoulder from trying to bust down the door.

They do not want to be their own because they are afraid that the other children would turn against them. The narrator stated “… They all blinked at him and then understanding, laughed and shook their heads.”(Page 2) Margot’s classmates wanted to believe that the sun is going to come out, but they refused to defend their individual belief. They were scared to be bullied; therefore chose to remain silent and went with the flow. The children’s lack of individual identity affects their values on morality. The narrator stated “They stood looking at the door and saw it tremble from her beating and throwing herself against it. They heard her muffled cries. Then, smiling, they turned and went out…”(Page 3) Margot’s classmates does not want to be denied by others; as a result they did not went against the majority’s actions; even though they knew it is wrong. Margot’s classmates did not care about their own identity; therefore they follow what the crowd did. Margot’s classmates want to fit in more than being on their own; so it affected their values and

As stated before the kids bullying Margot where striding towards a less tangible reward being a higher social standing . While in "If Only We Had Taller Been" it states “If we could reach and touch, we said, `Twould teach us, not to, never to, be dead... Hoping an inch of good is worth a pound of years.” ("If Only We Had Taller Been", np). As stated in the text the text the character(s) wants to achieve a more physical goal of immortality or

To begin, Margot is different from other “normal” people because she is antisocial. When all the other children are playing with each other, as the text states, “She would play no games with them in the underground city. If they tagged her and ran, she stood blinking after them and did not follow.” (Bradbury, 1954) This shows that Margot is too busy thinking about the sun to bother playing with the other children. She is the only child on Venus who has lived on Earth and seen the sun before moving to Venus. The others have lived on Venus all their lives, so Venus is the only world they’ve ever known. Margot is not used to rainy weather every day, so all she can

She stood there, a tall, thin steal gray fluffy haired figure on the top step for a second. And then looked down at the fair-haired children and smiled widely revealing a large gap between her two front teeth. She laughed cheerfully and declared, "Pay no mind to her. She's not so bad once you get to know her." Anna wondered about that. She seemed as if she were pretty good at being furious. "Come on, follow me." The lady said as she opened the door and allowed them to pass, "My name's Miss Margot. Now come along, there's no time to dawdle." She said in her sing-song voice and led them down a long, dark, narrow hallway that was lined with solid wood paneling. As we walked, she tugged at their arms to quicken their pace. Eventually she stopped and pressed on a spot in one of the boards and a door popped open. She and the children hurried into the cold, damp lopsided little basement storage area that was filled with spider webs and smelt dank. Once inside the room Anna noticed that a single light bulb on a long cord swayed from the ceiling and an old broken folding chair and a chamber pot leaned against one of the walls. And that in the back of the room there was a tiny, grimy window that permitted a sliver of evening moonlight to pass through. "That's yours." Miss Margot said and pointed her

The students looked down avoiding her gaze. The teacher looked at the closet where Margot had been. She thought, “Shame on my students! Poor, poor, girl…” Margot ran like she had never done before. She wiped away her tears, only to be replaced by more tears.

“‘Aw, you didn’t write that!’ protested one of the boys. ‘I did,’ said Margot. ‘’I did’. The Children get angry and jealous when Margot talks about the sun.

"Hey get back here!" rocks crumbled under my feet as I sprinted across the cement floor. I glanced behind me with a small grin as the baker of a little cafe tries to catch up to me.

To begin with, the children show their jealousy by locking up Margot in a closet because of something she thought would happen that day. The scene starts off with Margot saying, “But this is the day, the scientists predict, they say, they know, the sun..” (Bradbury, 1954) One of the boys cut her off and don’t respond as well to what she says. By doing so, he and the rest of the children gang up on her to put her in a closet. As Margot refuses to be shoved in the closet, the author describes the following scene as, “They surged about her, caught her up and bore her, protesting, and then

One of the several results of the children’s jealousy towards Margot is her becoming isolated. “So after that, dimly, dimly, she sensed it, she was different and they knew her difference and kept away.” (Bradbury, 1954). The author uses repetition, particularly the repetition of the word “dimly”, to indicate that Margot was unaware of how different she was from the other children. After she rejects the shower though, she finally begins to understand why the children keep their distance from her. On the other hand, the children did try to include her in their games, but due to her depression, Margot withdraws herself from them. Ironically, the children themselves are acting this way because they are also isolated from others. From what can be seen in the story, the children sleep in the same room, and do not speak often with others. So when they can leave their proverbial prison, they jump at the opportunity. Bradbury writes, “Then wildly, like animals escaped from their caves, they ran and ran in shouting circles.” (Bradbury, 1954). The children’s isolation causes them to express their rage at Margot in unique forms. Meanwhile, Margot becomes depressed from her long seclusion from her classmates.