Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of bullying.

“If everybody who works at school is so smart, how come they can’t get rid of the bullies? How come when it comes to bullies, kids are mostly on their own?”

Jake points out the irony that the educators are supposed to be the ones who know things and understand the world—and yet they clearly don’t understand how to deal with the problem of bullies. The students, who are supposed to be in school to learn, have to be the ones who are smart enough to take care of the bullying problem. Jake’s questions introduce the story’s central conflict and its theme of The Problem of Bullying at School. They make it clear how often children feel abandoned by adults, left on their own to tackle problems that feel too big for people their age to handle.

“Most bullies don’t seem so smart, and when they see a kid who looks like he is, something inside a bully says ‘Oh yeah? Well now you’ve got to deal with me, smart guy!’”

Jake shows that he is perceptive for his age when he identifies a sense of inadequacy as a motive for bullying. He is not unkind—he does not say that bullies are actually not smart, only that they “seem” that way. This introduces the story’s thematic concern with The Role of Empathy in Dealing with Adversaries.

“It took me four long years. It took having to deal with Nose Boy, and then Destructo, and King Bump, and The Fist. It also took being picked on by a Certified, Grade A, SuperBully.”

Jake’s use of anaphora and parallelism creates a rhythmic sound to his language that reinforces the repetitive nature of the bullying he experienced.