The Bystander: A Short Story

Everyday humans are presented with new opportunities and situations. These events can change the way they think and make decisions. But it's the way it can change ones relationships that can really hurt one's ability to care. There is a total of 7.442 billion people alive today. Yet only a small portion of that are people one truly cares about. For many people, a specific setting, situation or emotion can alter the way people can think rationally.

In the book Bystander, Eric, the protagonist, was a bystander, who noticed about bullying but, never did anything about it. Eric learned to take action for what is right to prevent from bullying and not be a bystander. As Eric realized that he was a bystander, he learned to stand up and confront the bullies.

In the book “Bystander by James Preller the main character Eric is a thirteen year old 7th grade boy who faces difficulties that change him as a person and how he views things. Eric’s parents get divorced causing his little brother Rudy, his mom and himself to move to Long Island from Ohio. Eric’s mom then enrolls Eric into a new school in which he does not fit into and he when he eventually fits in he finds the wrong friends.

In both short stories, Campbell and Bowen had wrote a modern adaptation of classic stories. These tales and ballads are adapted to incorporate the author’s culture and life. Offer a different variation that is contextually significant. Both stories are like an expanded version of the tales and ballad. They modified some aspects of the story while maintaining the essence, or offer a different perspective of the concept of tales and ballad.

In the early morning hours of March 13, 1964, twenty-eight year old barmaid Catherine "Kitty" Genovese was murdered and raped on the street in Kew Gardens, New York. The incident did not initially receive much attention until Martin Gansberg's infamous article, "Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder, Didn't Call the Police", was published in the New York Times two weeks later. In reality, only twelve people witnessed the event yet each did nothing to significantly help Genovese until it was too late. The Genovese murder has become the definitive example of the "bystander effect", the social phenomenon in which individuals are less likely to help someone in distress if there are other people present. The bystander effect occurs wherever there is

If you saw someone being attacked on the street, would you help? Many of us would quickly say yes we would help because to state the opposite would say that we are evil human beings. Much research has been done on why people choose to help and why others choose not to. The bystander effect states that the more bystanders present, the less likely it is for someone to help. Sometimes a bystander will assume that because no one else seems concerned, they shouldn't be (Senghas, 2007). Much of the research that has been done supports this definition of the bystander effect. There have also been recent situations where this

Darry after years in the war he lost his mind, we used to talk all the time. Only slowly drifting apart, i thought it was normal for that to happen, but it’s not is it? Darry Fist flies towards me like a rocket the anger in his face boiling. His punch knocking me two the ground bruising my skin. “Stop Darry” Screams Two-Bit. His words meant nothing to

The Bystander effect is a controversial theory given to social phenomenon where the more potential helpers there are, the less likely any individual is to help. A traditional explanation for this Bystander Effect is that responsibility diffuses across the multiple bystanders, diluting the responsibility of each. (Kyle et al.) The Bystander effect, also known as the Genovese Syndrome, was created after the infamous murder of “Kitty” Catherine Genovese in 1964, on the streets of New York in front of thirty-seven witnesses. After studying the Genovese syndrome and doing research on how this phenomenon occurs today, it is clear The Bystander effect is not theory, but actually fact.

He rolled his eyes and keep eating his cereal. Demaris was wearing a pair of low sagging pants, a sweatshirt and a ball cap that day. If you didn’t know him he could have passed as a drug dealer. Even with his scary looks he took care of me, especially when I didn’t ask for it. As I opened the door Demaris yelled,

There have been multiple cases where a civilian has been put in danger, and someone has refused to help causing the civilian to be in immense pain or even resulted to death. Each case there is a dispute saying that if a person has the choice and does not help should, they should be sued. In this scenario an off duty police officer was attacked on the property of a 7-11, and the clerk refused to help, which lead to the police officer suing him.

When someone is clearly in need of help you would think people would rush to their aide and help. We’ve seen and heard plenty of stories of people helping others in danger risking their lives. But what about those stories where people just stand by and watch as someone is clearly in need of help. This articles tells of such stories. On March 13, 1964 at 3 a.m., 28-year old Catherine (Kitty) Genovese was returning home to her apartment from work in Kew Gardens, Queens when she was attacked by Winston Mosely. She was raped and stab more than 12 times over a 35-minute time span. As she screamed for help lights in the nearby apartments turned on. People looked out but no one came to help her. More than half of her neighbors heard her pleas for

I don’t understand. You said that you didn’t want any contact with me, and I agree that’s best, as your malignant hatred toward me is palpable. You have even spread it to innocent bystanders: Jenny at the bank; the appraiser; my attorney; the closing attorney; etc. Therefore, I'm puzzled as to why you chose the one event that you know I look forward to every year, enjoy immensely (haven’t missed in 12 years!), and am certain to be at, to attend?

StepUp is an interactive workshop that talks about how to intervene in situations with problematic behavior either intentional and unintentional. In the workshop, I learned how to assess challenging situations and determine how to safely intercede and still be protected from or not exposed to danger or risk implementing the 3Ds- Direct, Distract, and Delegate. I also learned about “Bystander Intervention”- a philosophy and strategy for prevention of various types of violence, including bullying, hazing, harassment, sexual assault, relationship violence, discrimination, binge-drinking, and mental health concerns. How these are of great importance was addressed as well- why these prevent the pre-mentioned harmful situations and how we can use them.

On November 5th, 2012 in Staten Island, a woman named Glenda Moore had tried to escape the storm of Hurricane Sandy with her two boys -- Connor, 4, and Brandon, 2 -- to try and head towards dry land. On the monday morning Glenda risked driving herself and her two boys to safety in their blue Ford Explorer, only to get trapped in the catastrophic waters. While trying to get her sons out of the car quickly, she soon got separated from them, leaving them stranded and unknown of their surroundings. Frantically calling for help, Ms. Moore goes to her neighbors house yearning for help from him, but, he leaves ignoring her. On Thursday morning, both of the boys bodies were found lifeless. This is why the state of California needs to introduce a bystander law.

Today a lot of individuals are praised for their bravery and their heroism. A lot of