Being homosexual in a heterosexual world might be a burden some people have to deal with every day. Feeling misplaced or misunderstood in some situations is probably the worst-case scenario for heterosexual people, while dealing with bullying, prejudice and random hatred is the everyday life of a homosexual. Even though we are living in the 21st century different groups of people such as African Americans, gays or blondes are still the victims of public opinions and jokes. This random hatred of a specific group is often used on the internet today, where lines such as “that’s so gay!” or “how gay is this?” are used as insults. Being gay has been the reason for bullying at schools all around the world for many years. Combine being insecure about your sexuality as a child or a teenager with bullying and we have the recipe for a mentally unstable kid. Even something as simple as smiling at your teacher might be reason for other kids to bully you when you are different as a youngster. And a misunderstanding of a genuine smile is exactly what happens to the protagonist in Roddy Doyle’s short story “Smile”.
At first the title might seem like it reveals nothing about the plot of the story. The reason for this simple title is understood early on in the novel, as the title Smile is symbolic to most of the plot. In a classroom full of trouble makers, Brother Murphy, a small but violent teacher who used power over his students with ruthless cruelty, had always left Victor alone, his explanation being eight little words that would define the main character’s schooldays and make him the object of bullying in a group of peers “Victor Forde, I can never resist your smile,” (p. 1, l. 18). In other words the protagonist is bullied by his fellow students because their teacher is attracted to him. The short story is told in a flashback by 1st person narrator Victor Forde: “I’m older than he was back then and I think I recognize it now: he was miserable. He was lonely.” (p. 1, ll. 14-15). All events are therefore seen from his point of view. The previous quote also tell us that the protagonist is dynamic because he, as an adult narrator, is now able to understand what Murphy felt, where he was too absorbed in his own problems to understand the man back when he was a child. This is of course a development that happened after the events of the short story, but within the novel, it is also shown how the protagonist develops. Victor Forde doesn’t accept his role of being the queer in the beginning, but towards the end of the short story he decides to take on the role by asking Murphy to take down their homework (p. 5, ll. 156-159). He develops from an insecure young guy to a somewhat confident teenager: “I was suddenly, unexpectedly, delighted. I was frightening even Kenny Peters. I did the click business again,” (p. 4, ll. 149-150). Victor Forde is about 13-16 years old during the plot of the short story. He describes himself as a young teenage boy who isn’t through with puberty yet “I couldn’t see why he’d picked on me. I wasn’t like a girl or a man,” (p. 2, l. 63). At first he is a naïve freshman who likes going to school, but his love for school vanishes after being bullied because of Murphy’s declaration of attraction to Victor. He begins to hide things from his mother and ditch French classes even though he likes going to school. Furthermore Forde is a pattern breaker because he goes to secondary school, something his mother never did (p. 3, ll. 96-97).
Det er gratis at oprette en konto