Preview

White Lies By Erin Murphy Bullying Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
669 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
White Lies By Erin Murphy Bullying Essay
The world is filled with many forms of cruelty. One of these forms is bullying, no matter the side of bullying one has experienced it is something most people can relate to. In her essay, White Lies, Erin Murphy explores the effects bullying can have within in a person. The mother in Murphy’s essay should not have participated in helping her daughter lie her way out of bullying. Although the mother’s intentions were good, she is ultimately hurting her daughter in teaching her to pay her way out of bullying instead of confronting the situation. In Murphy’s essay Connie is portrayed as an unusual girl, she is after all, an albino. This trait sets her apart from the rest of the kids in her school and probably from most of the world. It is these people with particular and different traits …show more content…
I say this because by lying she only managed to create a temporary solution for her daughter. In the real world it is not reasonable to basically pay your way around bullying with candy. She is only teaching her daughter to avoid the real problem and become more of a victim because instead of actually confronting the bullying situation she is telling her daughter to simply avoid it. The mother is simply teaching Connie to mask the fact that she is an albino and seen as different and overpower it with giving kids candy to become only partially accepted. This is what the mother fails to realize, she is completely clueless to the fact that the kids in school aren’t entirely approving of Connie herself but more rather the candy Connie is providing for them. Although the mother’s intentions were good she took the wrong approach in trying to prevent her daughter from being bullied because now Connie is stuck in fake state of approval from the other kids.The bullying might have stopped, but Connie is still seen as an outcast and unusual girl not entirely accepted and merely tolerated by her
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Summary Of Bully Pulpit By Rachel Giese
    • 247 Words
    • 1 Page

    Summary Of Bully Pulpit By Rachel Giese

    In the essay ”Bully Pulpit” Rachel Giese puts the question “Is anti-bullying hysteria harming our kids?”, and shares how the nemesis of bullying has matured over the years. She is of the opinion that the way it is being tackled exhibits generational obliviousness. Rachel starts off by sharing her personal experience over the past six months during which period her 8 year old son was reprimanded by the school authorities on many occasions for being a bully. The difference in bullying in her and her son’s generation has been that the line between the aggressor and the victim has been drawn thicker. Rachel explains that over last one year, because of bullying and extreme torment from their peers, several young people have killed themselves.…

    • 247 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Compare And Contrast Conie And Arpi
    • 223 Words
    • 1 Page

    Compare And Contrast Conie And Arpi

    Unlike Arpi, Connie always get verbally bullied. Even though she pretends to be indifferent, she actually cares about it. However, things change when Connie announces that her dad work in a candy factory. After she said he dad can get the candy for free, all of the bullied actions instantly…

    • 223 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Character analysis on Connie
    • 1034 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Character analysis on Connie

    The story consists of two primary focus scenes: the world in which Connie flourishes in and the day that everything in Connie’s world changes. The beginning of the story introduces the reader to the protagonist who is young Connie and the central point of the story. Connie is described by Oats as being a…

    • 1034 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Characterize Connie in "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
    • 605 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Characterize Connie in "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

    Connie was a slender girl with long dark blondish hair and thought of herself as being very beautiful. She had a little bit of pep to her walk, as if she was bouncing on a trampoline as she walked around everywhere. She was a very happy and enthusiastic girl unless she was with her family. She felt as though she was not good enough in her mothers’ eyes and was always being picked on and compared to her older sister. For example, her mom would say, “Why don’t you keep your room clean like your sister?” (Oates 436) She enjoyed getting out of the house as often as she could and she would go to the shopping center with her friends where they would sneak across the street to a restaurant where the older kids would hang out. She was never the same person she pretended to be at home. She would act and dress one way at home, but when she went out she was free to express herself.…

    • 605 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Character Analysis Essay
    • 913 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Character Analysis Essay

    Connie was a young, fifteen-year-old, attractive girl who worked hard to show the appearance of being mature. She created a personality through expressing…

    • 913 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Commentary on "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been"
    • 1491 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Commentary on "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been"

    Written in the nineteen- seventies a new era of sex, drugs and rock and roll, Connie is growing up in a new rebellious young culture. Oates writes about how obsessed Connie is with her appearance, "craning her neck to glance into mirrors, or checking others people's faces to make sure her own was all right". This description makes her out to be vain. One explanation of why Connie is concerned with her appearance would include a new awareness of self consciousness and a need to always look pretty. Being vain is considered a sin by many but however one must always project an image of perfection in that society and even today's society. Connie has to be able to fit in and go out to enjoy her life and if she did not look her best she would not be able to do the things she enjoyed most. Her mother was constantly pressuring her to be more like her older sister. This shows the rebelliousness of new teens in the beginning to this era and how the differences of age and culture can cause conflict. Connie thought secretly that her mother had preferred her to her sister…

    • 1491 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Analysis Of Joyce Carol Oates 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'
    • 565 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Analysis Of Joyce Carol Oates 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'

    Another interest we learn about Connie is she likes going to the mall with boys. She is a pretty and young girl who likes the attention her looks get her. She is always looking in the mirror, and Connie thinks that beauty is the only quality that matters. Connie cares more about her reflection in the mirror than her family. What we also learn about Connie is that she is particularly interested in older men.…

    • 565 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
    • 1134 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

    Since Connie is a rebellious fifteen year old girl that fights with her parents and constantly wants to do her own things, she is acting like a normal teenage girl that is of course not yet fully mature. She enjoyed going out with her girlfriends and complaining about the “hard life” she had and the constant nagging her mother gave. One night when Connie picks up a guy named Eddie, she “drew her shoulders up and sucked in her breath with the pure pleasure of being alive, and just at that moment she happened to glance at a face just a few feet from hers. It was a boy with shaggy black hair, in a convertible jalopy painted gold (Oates, 320). Connie constantly tries to ignore this man, who the reader eventually learns is Arnold Friend, yet she cannot look away while he says, “Gonna get you baby” while wagging his finger. This quote could symbolize Connie’s eventual fate since womanhood comes to every girl and Eddie did not even notice Arnold saying anything since men do not understand the way girls enter womanhood. Connie continues to be compared to her wholesome sister June by her mother with a disapproving tone, but Connie returns the favor by taking her mother for a fool. In fact, “Connie thought her mother was so simple that is was maybe cruel to fool her so much”(Oates, 321). This constant bickering between mother and daughter…

    • 1134 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Identity Analysis
    • 1247 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Identity Analysis

    Connie who is a fifteen year old girl, is more vulnerable to Arnold Friend’s manipulations because she still has yet to figure out who she really is (Wilson 261). Connie seems to always get compared to her sister June, “Why don’t you keep your room clean like your sister? How've you got your hair fixed—what the hell stinks? Hair spray? You don't see your sister using that junk" (Oates 205). Connie’s older sister, June, who is twenty-four years old, still lives with her parents as for she works at Connie’s school as a secretary. Connie’s mother is so infatuated by all of June’s accomplishments and wishes that Connie could accomplish everything June is. This made Connie wonder what she could do to be as good as June. Connie often stated that she “wished her mother was dead” (206). With all of the comparing Connie’s mother did, affected Connie majorily. Connie often didn’t really understand who she was because her mother always told her that “she was not good enough” or that “she was not…

    • 1247 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Where Are You Going
    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Where Are You Going

    she was pretty and that was everything” (323). This captivation with herself along with the constant looking in the mirrors and thinking her mother was only pestering her all the time because her mother’s own good looks were long gone by now (323) shows a sign of immaturity because she believes everything revolves around whether or not someone is beautiful. Connie had two sides to her, which is most personified in her clothing and the way she makes it look one way at home and a different way when she is out (324).…

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Short Story 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'
    • 694 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Short Story 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'

    Connie knew she was pretty, and that’s why she had a “giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people's faces to make sure her own was all right” (752). Her beauty brought power over boys. She chose to talk to only the ones that she thought were cute or popular, and she made a point of ignoring the more common ones. “It was just a boy from high school they didn't like. It made them feel good to be able to ignore him” (753). The narrator observes that the world she lived in was a familiar one. Everything was safe, but one single day made her it all…

    • 694 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Fantasy Vs. Reality Where are you going, Where have you been
    • 1209 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Fantasy Vs. Reality Where are you going, Where have you been

    At the young age of 15 Connie isn’t sure if she still wants to be a child or grow into a woman. The narrator states, “Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home: her walk that could be childlike and bobbing, or languid enough to make anyone think she was hearing music in her head, her mouth which was pale and smirking most of the time, but bright and pink on these evenings out, and her laugh which was cynical and drawling at home – ‘Ha, ha, very funny’ – but high-pitched and nervous anywhere else, like the jingling of the charms on her bracelet” explains her inner turmoil of an adolescent growing into a woman (Oates 422). While at home, Connie wanted to still be seen as a child, but outside of her family’s eyes, she sought to be sexually desired and popular. In order to keep these two worlds separate, Connie constantly lies to her mother about her whereabouts and who she is spending time with. Connie and her friends are dropped off at the mall and then wander to a nearby hangout spot…

    • 1209 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been
    • 889 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been

    Connie is fifteen years old and obviously self-conscious because of the love that she never receives at home. Her whole life revolves around attention from boys since she does not feel loved at home. Her sister June appears to be the favorite in the family, as she receives all of the positive attention. Connie's mother doesn’t speak kindly to Connie or about Connie, and Connie doesn't think well of her mother either. Her father does whatever he can to please Connie but doesn’t seek for a good father-daughter relationship. They never talk about what is happening in their lives and act as if they are only acquaintances. Connie wants to appear older and wiser than she actually is and her head is always full of meaningless daydreams to help her cope. Her promiscuity leads to attraction from boys and older men where she becomes terrified and realizes that she is not as grown up as she thought. Connie comes face to face with the harshreality of being forced into adulthood at the age of fifteen because of the special attention of Arnold Friend.…

    • 889 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Annotated Bibiliography
    • 425 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Annotated Bibiliography

    Connie is portrayed to be lacking in self esteem and has feelings of worthlessness which is why she makes the decision, possibly fatal, like befriending Arnold friend.…

    • 425 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Insecurity and Ignorance
    • 843 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Insecurity and Ignorance

    Connie’s insecurity causes her to constantly desire for male attention. She consistently daydreams about the boys she has been with, “Her mind slipped over onto thoughts of the boy she had been with the night before.”(365) Even as Connie goes through her normal, relaxing day, her mind subconsciously slips to thoughts of boys. This shows her obsession, desiring more from the males with whom she interacts. Connie’s clothing also displays her low self-esteem, when talking about Connie’s two different appearances: “She wore a pullover jersey blouse that looked one way at home and another way when she was away from home.”(362) Connie’s need for male attention causes her to dress in an inappropriate way, that she cannot show at home. She lost all self-respect, allowing herself to dress in a way to fulfill her mind’s desires. Because of the way she dresses, males treat her as they would someone much older, who dresses in the same way. Connie’s low self-esteem causes her to think that being pretty is all that matters, “She knew she was pretty and that was everything.” (361) Connie believes she is pretty and that she is better than anyone else because of that. Her world revolves around boys, and she thinks that…

    • 843 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics