Bullied or left out?

Being bullied is one thing ... but being left out of the social whirl is another. They often go together, but they are not one and the same.

I do believe that Eric was bullied, but I also believe that being left out of the social whirl was what really got to him.

Quote :

I hate you people for leaving me out of so many fun things. And no don't fucking say, "well thats your fault" because it isnt, you people had my phone #, and I asked and all, but no. no no no dont let the weird looking Eric KID come along, ohh fucking nooo.

He felt rejected. Yes, he had a few dates, but they never led to anything.

Lots of kids can't even get that far - I, for one, never dated anyone in high school. But I can see how getting only halfway to the promised land was frustrating for him - maybe even more frustrating than not getting anywhere at all. It made him wonder, "What am I doing wrong? Why are these girls ultimately rejecting me?"

It ate away at him.

I would say a bit of both. He also writes about that people makes fun of him and how he looks etc.

Eric wrote:

“Whatever I do people make fun of me, and sometimes directly to my face. I’ll get revenge soon enough. Fuckers shouldn’t have ripped on me so much huh”

1891 wrote:

I would say a bit of both. He also writes about that people makes fun of him and how he looks etc.

Eric wrote:

“Whatever I do people make fun of me, and sometimes directly to my face. I’ll get revenge soon enough. Fuckers shouldn’t have ripped on me so much huh”

Yes, he does.

Quote :

Everyone is always making fun of me because of how I look, how fucking weak I am and shit, well I will get you all back: ultimate fucking revenge here. you people could have shown more respect, treated me better, asked for my knowledge or guidence more, treated me more like senior, and maybe I wouldn't have been as ready to tear your fucking heads off. then again, I have always hated how I looked, I make fun of people who look like me, sometimes without even thinking sometimes just because I want to rip on myself. Thats where a lot of my hate grows from, the fact that I have practically no selfesteem, especially concerning girls and looks and such. therefore people make fun of me... constantly... therefore I get no respect and therefore I get fucking PISSED

I think they were both bullied and ostracized.
A person does not only have to be ostracized

Being left out can be a form of bullying, but I stick w the standard definition- thats its

1: Repeated

2: Imballance of power

3: Intent to cause harm.

And also

1: Pure bullies

2: Pure targets

3: Both. Meaning; they are both bullied and they bully others.

With that being said, I understand thats its a very complicated definition. I think Ive read somewhere that some bullying can, in fact, be unintentional(the unintentional bully) even though the standard definition is that bullies hurt with Intent to cause harm.

Bullying doesnt have to be physical, though. It can be verbal, emotional or physical. I would say it depends why you are doing it. If its with Intent to cause harm to someone that cant stand up for themselves, than yes. But Eric had a reputation for getting into fights with people etc, so its possible that some people didnt want to have anything to do with him because of that.

I remember in Middle School I was bullied by some Kids and they used to be quite the trouble makers. The last thing you wanted to do was to spend time with them, because they treated you really horribly.


But how far down the social latter Eric and Dylan was: They certainly werent the most popular Kids, but I dont believe that they were as unpopular as made out to be. I think a lot of people took Brooks Browns word for it that they were the lowest of the low. That doesnt seem to corroborate well with other statements Ive seen. I believe that Brooks either exaggatarated a bit or something like that when he said this. Of course, Im not going to deny that they were bullied. I think one should value all sides of the argument, and of course, he could be right about this. Both books such as Far from the tree and A mothers reckoning have theorized that they were.

And if they did share this horrible humiliation, of course, no one can deny that that is absolutely terrible. I just dont think that they were really as unpopular as some people like to claim

i think that eric was less popular than dylan. dylan, from what it seems, had a full circle of friends and hung out with them quite often whereas with eric, dylan was his only real friend and eric viewed dylan as his best friend.

It seems to me like they were both feared, liked, hated(for different reasons). Of course, you could still be popular snd be bullied. I kind of feel like they were neither the most popular nor the most un- popular, and occuppied a middle ground. Columbine had thousands of students. Even at my high school we were roughly 600 and theres no way everyone knew each other. Thats just not possible.

Yet, I dont get the idea that cliques are as much of a thing as in the US. I tend to see cliques more as people associating with one group and sticking to them. From Sues perspective, it seems as though Columbine was a frightening place, even if you were one of the most popular kids and Dylan and hes friends were not. If thats true, than I dont see why that wouldnt make sense. But I dont believe they were the type of outcasts people made them out to be. And yet, they Could still be bullied of course