Nineteen Minutes Essay

* Our growing understanding of the belonging concept: The desire to be included is strong and the action of being excluded is humiliating:

It is sad to say but the story of Ryan is a story that has and will happen to many more of our adolescence unless more is done about bullying. Ryan's story happened almost 15 years ago when kids just started to get cell phones and social media accounts. So before then, bullying was mostly done in schools by physically and verbally harming another person. In the year 2017, almost every kid has a cell phone, computer, and several social media accounts. In the age of adolescence, kids are facing many different issues of development. They are trying to figure out who they are and how do they fit into society. It is a very emotional time and kids that are different from other kids their age may be easy targets for bullies. Ryan was a victim of both types of bullying, he was physically bullied and cyberbullying. In this paper, I am going to try and explain how Erikson's theory of group identity vs. alienation. Also, I will try to explain some intervention strategies that may be able to help and prevent bullying in schools.

Belonging is the relationship between an individual and his society, idealistically of one being in harmony with their surrounding peers and therefore becoming accepted no matter what attributes they possess. Belonging is an intrinsic need, it is a complex and variable state and in the end brings some form of happiness to an individual. The film, “Strictly Ballroom”, produced by Baz Luhrman, focuses upon the individual “Scott” who possesses the skills to win but defies the rules of the ballroom world by adding unauthorised steps and by challenging the status quo. Similarly, The short story, “A Straight Bat”, by Roger Holt, revolves around the individual Timothy whose individuality is suppressed by his fathers’ expectations. The song,

Franklin Roosevelt had said, “Only thing we had to fear is fear itself.” Then, what if teen’s fear is being alone forever? What if taunting and abuse to a teen’s mental and physical state are what sparks fear of isolation? Generally speaking, bullying is commonly used to stereotype individuals based on their physical or mental appearance. Therefore, teen’s would rely on their friends to be comfortable at school, but what if you have no one? Also, teen’s are shown negative images that reflect towards their self-esteem at home as well as in public. The deeming fear of isolation is caused by teen’s lack of self-esteem in society. Due to bullying, negativity towards themselves, and peer pressure a teen’s life is under constant fear of isolation.

“In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world, or you can just jump off it. In nineteen minutes, you can revenge” (Picoult). Those words are of the opening lines of Jodi Picoult’s best seller, Nineteen Minutes. Although this novel is heart wrenching, and cuts into the ‘grays’ of school shootings, it is anything but original. Lead character, Peter Houghton, is an almost perfect profile replication of 1999’s Columbine shooters, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris. A simple personaltiy analysis will reveal that both Peter and Columbine Shooters suffer from parental neglect, the violent virtual world, ruthless peers, as well as easy access to weapons.

People who live in a discriminative society constantly face the dangers of being placed in a certain category because of who they are. The trend of stereotypes is reflected among different characters in literature, such as Peter Houghton from Nineteen Minutes and Janie Crawford from Their Eyes Were Watching God. Peter and Janie both have to constantly face tough challenges as they are labeled by society’s expectations. From Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie is defined as being the “woman” in the relationship from her ex-husbands, Logan Killicks and Joe Starks. Joe and Logan’s behavior towards Janie shows the struggle and disrespect women receive from men and society.

Belonging or not belonging is the feeling of being included or excluded by a certain group, person, place or community. This is conveyed very well in the film “strictly ballroom” produced by Baz Luhrmen and the picture book “The Sneetches” by Dr suess. In stictly ballroom, this concept is primarily conveyed by Scott Hastings struggle with the dance community to find where he truly belongs. In 'The Sneetches is refers to the group belonging of the two seperate types of sneetches and their journey to belong as a community and individually.

Josie states that on her first day of high school she had a negative encounter with a socialite “She walked up to me in a really snotty way and said “I heard you’re the recipient of the English scholarship”. I remember thinking that she wanted to be my friend. I was so thrilled, imagining the slumber parties and holidays we’d be spending together. But I was only given 10 seconds to dream, because she looked me up and down and then walked away. The look kind of said it all.”.

Society needs to help teens stay away from cliques in high school also get them involved with the community. Neighborhood cliques pose the highest rate of significant threat for violent crimes in the U.S, versus national-level street gangs, prison gangs, and outlaw motorcycle gangs. It's clear that this is a huge problem for teens in high school because cliques in high school can turn into bullying. Thelen Tom, 2015, 22 December, “Bullyproof”, “To Clique or not to Clique”, Cliques can sometimes hold powerful emotional weight and use this power to bully and intimidate other teens.

explains stereotypes and societal standards. This classic movie exemplifies group dynamic in society. It does this by portraying distinct stereotypes, varying from the so-called “princess” all the way to the so-called “criminal.” At the start of the film, each member in the group is completely different and separate. They were definitely considered an out-group, which is a group of people that don’t identify with one another. Throughout the movie, they realize they share similarities and begin to identify with each other as the breakfast club. They become an in-group. The group identity of each student changes from seeing everyone as completely different, to seeing what

The documentary Two Million Minutes by Adam Raney give Americans and other countries a true look at what really goes on with our education systems. It documents the lives of six teenagers going through high school. The teens that are document, for their country or origin, are very stereotypical. They compare and contrast the teens and the education system that they are subjected to. The difference between how America, China and India think about schoolwork is that the countries, aside from America, they are very focused on their schoolwork.

Oftentimes in works of literature it features characters who overcome hardships and misfortune. Jodi Picoult has placed the reader with characters were able to connect with, being able to sympathize their dilemmas. Each character desires of love and comfort of a friend but in a world with no one to confide in keeping quiet will have to do. Jodi Picoult's 19 Minutes Exposes the hardships of being different in a “normal” society through the character Josie Cormier by her actions secrecy and the painters endured to exploit the rational world as unfair and violent. Josie is known as the popular girl in high school and with the title to maintain, she definitely did not act like your typical mean girl.

Josie becomes only concerned with the popular kids and ends up loosing herself in the processes. Throughout the novel, this is seen to take a toll on her mental health. The book says, “To be truly popular, it has to look like something you are, when in reality, it's what you make yourself” (Picoult 241). Josie begins to drastically change, and when high school comes around, Peter has lost his only friend, who he had loved dearly. This leads Peter into an even darker tunnel of depression.

Bullying. The single most important in our modern day society is bullying. Every day, someone is gets bullied. Bullying is usually associated with teenagers and has been seen as a "right of passage" in their coming of age. However, this has been a major problem for teenagers that they don't face alone. Like teenagers, the daily lives of several children and adults have also been impacted by bullying. Despite the fact that it is rare for physical bullying, as seen in a variety of movies, to occur in reality, it is very common for verbal bullying to happen; in fact, verbal bullying is so common that, at times, some may ever neglect that it is a very powerful form of bullying. Much damage has was been produced by bullying in our society, including

19 minutes is a book written by Jodi Picoult that describes a school shooting. This book was written in a pretty unique way, because instead of having story told by sequential events from one perspective, it is told from many perspectives, from different times, and in different orders. For example, one moment you could be reading from the point of view of the shooter during the event, and the next you’re reading from the point of view of a student 6 months after. The author uses different points of view and a non-linear timeline to tell a unique story.