The Bully

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2002

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-12

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary

Fifteen-year-old Darrell Mercer takes a last walk with his best friend, Malik, the night before Darrell moves away. Darrell and Malik have spent their whole lives in their run-down Philadelphia neighborhood and consider it home, despite the presence of drugs and crime. Darrell reminisces about all the neighborhood characters he’ll miss. Despite being small and short for his age, Darrell started high school smoothly, thanks to friends who always had his back. Darrell dreads his new life in California because he will be starting school two months into the year and won’t have his old friends to keep him from getting picked on.

Darrell and Malik stop for a cheesesteak at their favorite spot, but Darrell is too emotional to eat. Even though he knows why they have to move, he feels like it is unfair. Overcome, Darrell sobs as he tells Malik that he loves him and calls him his brother. Malik gives Darrell a hug and comforts him. While Darrell runs home, he thinks about the time he was severely bullied by a kid at summer camp. At the time, he kept silent about the bullying because he was so ashamed. As Darrell says goodbye to the neighborhood cat, he thinks about the small house where he grew up until his father died in a car accident. Darrell’s mother, Jackie, then lost her job at an insurance agency and has had to take food service jobs that don’t pay as well. When her brother, Darrell’s Uncle Jason, called to offer her a better-paying job in California, she decided they would move.

Darrell returns home and tries to hide his tear-stained face from his mother. Jackie offers some comfort, apologizing for making him move and acknowledging how hard it is to leave all his friends. Darrell feels guilty about making his mother feel bad and retreats to his bedroom. In the empty room, he considers running away but recognizes that he would never do that to his mother.

The next morning, Darrell and his mother rise before dawn to catch their cross-country bus. Jackie talks animatedly about their future in California and Darrell’s new school. Darrell tries not to hurt his mother’s feelings, but he cannot muster any excitement about the move. Jackie advises him to put “a big, friendly smile” on to make friends (12). Darrell knows that she doesn’t understand how hard it is to be a small teen boy. The last time he visited, Uncle Jason commented on how small Darrell is. Darrell looks out the window, feeling dread.

Chapter 2 Summary

When the bus stops for lunch at a roadside diner, Darrell tries smiling at some teens listening to rap music in a Mustang. They glare menacingly back at him. Darrell feels so nervous that he can’t eat his cheeseburger. Darrell remains glum for the rest of their three-day bus ride. In California, Darrell marvels at the unfamiliar landscape.

When Uncle Jason arrives at the station, Darrell can’t believe Uncle Jason’s tall, muscular stature. Meanwhile, Uncle Jason immediately comments on how small Darrell is and how they’ll need to feed him to ensure he grows. As Uncle Jason drives them home, he points out Bluford High and expresses his hopes that Darrell will one day join a sports team, making Darrell feel even more inadequate. He is not big enough for football or basketball, and he’s too uncoordinated to play baseball. Darrell notices two kids standing in front of a neighborhood sandwich shop and imagines one of them to be Malik. Their new home is a well-kept rear unit in Uncle Jason’s duplex. Darrell sees his two cousins, Travis and Nate, for the first time since his father’s funeral. Travis is slightly younger than Darrell, but they are almost the same size; Travis comments on Darrell’s smallness. Nate is three years younger and substantially smaller.

Darrell takes a walk through the neighborhood and encounters a group of guys his age. Darrell tries to take his mother’s advice and smile at them. The boys immediately start teasing Darrell, claiming that he looks like a sixth grader. Darrell grows increasingly nervous. They demand money to not throw him in a dumpster. Darrell hands over the $3.25 he has in his pocket, and the boys ridicule him for how little he has. The biggest kid in the group introduces himself as Tyray Hobbs, a fellow ninth grader at Bluford who “runs things around here” (25). As Darrell tries to leave, Tyray trips him. Darrell falls, cuts his lip, and resigns himself to the reality that these kids will pick on him when he gets to Bluford.

At home, Jackie cooks Darrell’s favorite dinner and tells him about how wonderful her new job is and how happy she is about the move. Darrell doesn’t have the heart to tell her about the bullying. That night, Darrell struggles to sleep. The sound of Tyray’s laughter echoes in his head, and he dreads his first day at Bluford.

Chapter 3 Summary

The day before Darrell starts at Bluford, his mother sends him to the grocery store. Ahead of him in line, Darrell spots a pretty girl wearing a Bluford t-shirt. Darrell is too nervous to talk to her, but she says hello. He tells her that he’s from Philadelphia and will be starting high school this year. When she seems shocked, Darrell assumes that she thinks he looks too young; she clarifies that she’s just happy to meet another person from her class. Darrell immediately feels connected to her. She introduces herself as Amberlynn Bailey. Darrell becomes a little more optimistic about California.

When Darrell gets home with the groceries, Travis asks why he didn’t drive to the grocery store. Darrell is embarrassed that he and his mother don’t own a car, so he lies, claiming that they left it back in Philadelphia. Uncle Jason has told Travis that Darrell and his mom are poor. Darrell is furious and ashamed, angrily denying this. Nate comes out to play basketball with Travis, but Travis holds the ball out of Nate’s reach, belittling Nate for being small. Darrell avoids them and goes inside.

Darrell doesn’t tell his mom anything about the bullies. She gives him money to buy his lunch in the cafeteria, which Darrell feels guilty about taking. Just then, there’s yelling outside: Travis is beating up his smaller and younger brother. Empathizing with Nate and remembering being bullied similarly at summer camp, Darrell intervenes, lifting Travis off Nate. Travis reacts angrily and runs straight to his father, accusing Darrell of pushing him around. Darrell calmly explains the situation and why he intervened. Uncle Jason shares his parenting philosophy: He wants his boys to play rough as a way of testing their limits and turning from boys into men. Uncle Jason believes that Darrell has not gotten the right kind of guidance in the ways of masculinity and is ready to provide it.

Darrell doesn’t agree with Uncle Jason, noticing that Travis curries favor with his father and that Nate looks at his brother with hatred in his eyes. Darrell decides that he is going to look out for Nate from then on, just like Malik looked out for him.

Chapters 1-3 Analysis

The novel begins with Darrell moving from his familiar and comfortable home to a new and quickly hostile environment. Langan juxtaposes these two settings through vivid descriptions and emotive imagery. As Darrell passes through his Philadelphia neighborhood, he enjoys the warm glow of the stores and affectionately remembers growing up there. To his eyes, everyday sights—and even street litter—are beautiful: He sees the “emerald-green shards of a shattered beer bottle glistening in the street light” (5)—garbage elevated into the realm of precious stones—and the “radiant green eyes” of a street cat that is imbued with a measure of the sublime (7). In contrast to these poetic descriptions, Darrell’s new neighborhood appears uncomfortable and aesthetically deficient: Its stucco houses are “crowded into narrow lots” (16). Even setting elements that look like Darrell’s old life prove to be the opposite. Although the teens outside the market remind Darrell of his old friends at home, unlike his old friends, they immediately laugh at Darrell, hassle him, and take his money. The contrast in settings also manifests in Darrell’s ability to be emotionally vulnerable. When he walks around with his best friend, Malik, on his last day in Philadelphia, Darrell is able to cry and receive comfort from his friend—a scene of two male teenagers bonding in an emotionally honest and open way. In California, Darrell feels like he must keep his emotions locked up, hiding how he feels from his mother so that he won’t ruin her excitement about her new job and protecting himself from the criticisms of Uncle Jason, whose comments imply that Darrell is insufficiently aligned with expectations of masculinity.

Langan relies on the rhetorical device of opposites in his characterizations as well. Antagonist Tyray is described as Darrell’s physical opposite. While Darrell is small and weak, Tyray is tall and muscular. Darrell knows no one, while Tyray is always supported by a crew of friends. Darrell tries to approach Tyray in a friendly, open-hearted way, but Tyray responds with cruelty and derision. Using these markers of higher social rank—a demonstration of How Bullies Exercise Power—Tyray dominates Darrell. Outnumbered and overpowered, Darrell has no choice but to give in to this dynamic. By framing the theft of Darrell’s money as protection payment, the bullies set up an expectation that if Darrell pays them, they won’t harm him. Underneath every exchange is the threat of violence, which causes Darrell to constantly walk around in fear.

Darrell’s fear plays into the power differential that allows Tyray to demand whatever he wants. Darrell can see that Tyray will be a significant obstacle toward any kind of belonging or friendship, but his only solution is to avoid Tyray whenever possible. With resignation, Darrell decides that “this is how it’s gonna be” (26). This response reveals one of Darrell’s character flaws: Rather than push back or seek help, Darrell accepts feeling helpless. Instead of becoming indignant at being treated this way, Darrell internalizes Tyray’s malice as somehow earned. He chastises himself for being cowardly, develops more body shame by ruminating on being small and weak, and resentfully blames his mother’s necessary decision to move. Darrell’s tendency at the start of the novel is to turn every negative experience into a reason to hate himself; even when Amberlynn is being friendly, Darrell assumes that she is also making fun of his size. Since Darrell is a dynamic character who will grow and change over the course of the novel, these early chapters establish the thinking pattern that he will eventually outgrow.

We also see one of Darrell’s personality strengths: his empathy and moral sense—qualities that will characterize him by the end of the novel. When Darrell notices his cousin Travis bullying his little brother Nate, Darrell intervenes. Even though Uncle Jason tells him to let the boys fight, Darrell pledges to look out for Nate. The promise is internal—Darrell cannot yet confront the physically imposing Uncle Jason—but in making it, Darrell shows the backbone that will eventually help him prevail. Even though Darrell cannot look at himself with the same kindness, he notices and cares for Nate. In this, readers learn Darrell’s true nature, though right now, his fear and shame keep him from being comfortable with who he is.