Sunday, September 30, 2012

In Philbrick's Freak the Mighty, what is an example of bias?

When someone is biased, it means that they hold unreasonable, and possibly hostile, feelings towards others from a specific group of people. Since Kevin and Max are in middle school, Tony D., the one they call Blade because he carries a knife around with him, is biased against the two younger boys. Tony D. is biased mostly because he feels powerful when he can beat up or intimidate younger kids. He perceives that it is easier to pick on Max and Kevin because they look weak and scared. Therefore, Tony has unreasonable and hostile feelings towards these boys for no other reason than that they seem to be easy targets. In fact, Tony D. demonstrates his biased feelings when he gets the two boys' attention before running after them, as in the following passage:



"Hey you! Mutt and Jeff! Frankenstein and Igor! Don't look around, I'm talkin' to you, boneheads. What is this, a freak show?" (29).



Tony D. throws out stereotypical comments to criticize and provoke Max and Kevin, which also define the biases he is drawing from. For instance, Max is large and goofy for his age while Kevin is small and dwarf-like for his. Tony D. uses these differences to single the boys out from "normal" society, which is a very biased thing to do, just to gain power and control over someone else. 

No comments:

Post a Comment

What are hearing tests?

Indications and Procedures Hearing tests are done to establish the presence, type, and sever...