There is a book called Hate List by Jennifer Brown. It is about a girl named Valerie Leftman whose boyfriend Nick comes to school one day and shoots any of the people that mistreated him and Valerie. Even though Valerie did not know that Nick was planning on shooting the school up, she is still blamed by her classmates because she wrote the list that Nick used to decide who to kill. For Valerie, the list was a way to get out her frustrations of all the people who mistreated her. It was a one and done emotion release. On the other hand, Nick looked at the list as a beginning step in a master plan.
This book shows that the same kind of mistreatment can and often does, result in different reactions. Even though Valerie was able to brush off what the mean girls and boys at her school did to them, for Nick those taunts were unforgivable. In fact, in Nick’s mind the actions of the bullies were worth their death. The phrase “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me” is a nice idea to live by but it is completely untrue. Sticks and stones leave temporary pain. Words can stick with you forever if they are allowed to. This also goes to show that society can’t dictate how much pain a person should be able to take. That does not mean that it is ok to kill people who hurt you but, everyone as a whole and especial youths, should pay more attention to what they do and say to their peers. No one wants to be the person that pushes someone over the edge into insanity and irrationality.
