Humor is part of everyone’s personality. Anyone can crack a joke or pull a prank to make someone laugh, but what happens when the joke goes too far? Who stands up for you when a prank ends up hurting instead of helping? Dashka Slater's 57 Bus explores what happens when what was supposed to be a funny prank turns into hospital rooms and court hearings. This book follows Richard, a black teen who is called "the funny one" by his friends and lives in east Oakland battling racism and poverty, and Sasha, a non-binary teen, as they struggle with their gender expression. These two people cross paths on the 57 bus, and their lives are set ablaze when Richard decides to set Sasha’s skirt on fire as a joke. Richard's foolish actions in his everyday life …show more content…
When Richard’s grandma defends him to the press, she tells the reporter, "I don't know. He was with his friends, joking around, that’s all. He’s not a bad person. If you knew him, you’d know he’s always joking around" (165). Richard's grandma talks to the reporter as if they are in a neutral position, but 95% of the press was already on Sasha’s side from the very first news headline. She tries to portray Richard as she sees him: a silly kid who made a foolish, thoughtless mistake with his friends, but all anyone else seems to see is a hateful kid who can’t handle a boy wearing a skirt. She also says if they knew him they would understand, but could they really ever understand unless they had been there with Richard knowing what he was thinking? Since his friends and family only had one excuse for him—that he meant it all in a playful way—that's all anyone knew about Richard's side of the story: "And that's all anyone seemed to hear: he was joking around" (166). This gave those on Sasha's side an advantage in their efforts to prove Richard is a bad person. From people on the internet to Sasha’s friends, he was portrayed by so many people as a careless fool who thinks hurting people is funny. This is just because his family and friends' defense of him was taken out of context. His personality affected their defnse for him, which ended up becoming a way for other people to portray him as a bad
The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater is compelling nonfiction following a real story about two teenagers who faced the consequences of a life-altering crime. In 2013, an assault, considerably a hate crime, took place on a city bus in Oakland, California involving an agender teen, Sasha, and a black teenager, Richard. With ample detail, Slater describes the lifestyles of both characters, such as how Richard didn’t grow up in the best environment but was still a good person. Sasha, on the other hand, was constantly surrounded by supportive people; they were named Luke at birth, but decided it didn't apply to them correctly and identified as agender. While riding home on the bus, Sasha falls asleep and Richard, not intending the harm that occurred, lit
Tiffany Foster Professor Dunn Comp 101 10 December 2014 Stand Up Although hurtful and demeaning, prejudiced slurs of all varieties have always transpired throughout society. Everyone has been offended by a bigoted remark at some point in time, but few people truly know how to respond to those insults in an effective manner. In the essay, “Don’t Just Stand There,” Diane Cole relates discriminatory offenses to her real-life experience as she tells a story of when a co-worker told her a joke with a very offensive punch line.
“We have to help him!” Todd yelled.” This is what Todd said in “The Race,” by Heather Klassen. Todd is desired to help others and make everyone happy. He does this by going back and helping a little boy and sacrifice his win, he felt bad for the boy and wanted to help.
Bullying is a very terrible and overwhelming experience for any person to experience. Most people being bullied find that standing up for themselves is not an option because of the allusion that they have no power over the antagonizer. So imagine if the bullies were a fourth the age of the patronize victim. In Carolyn Thompson’s article,“ Bullied NY Bus Monitor Teaches Kindness Year Later” we hear the heart-wrenching story of an elderly bus monitor named Karen Klein, who witnesses that strangers affection expressed through a generous donation of an exponential sum of money can surpass the viciousness of a few immature boys. Thompson expresses her belief that Klein deserves this exceptional amount of money through the entirety of her article.
Elijah Singh Mrs. Kaminski-Moss ENG1D January 12th 2022 The Fire That Started It All Finding a good book can be a daunting task, especially for teenagers. This book however unfolds a thrilling, yet heartbreaking real life tale that would appeal to the average teenager. The 57 Bus By Dashka Slater is a novel that uncovers the true story of an agender person being set on fire in a transit bus by a teenage boy.
The book, The 57 bus by Dashka Slater is about two high school students who had a very important event happened in their lives. Sasha is an agender person which means they identify as neither a male nor a female. Richard is a young African American male who had some trouble in his school life. Sasha and Richard's lives both changed after an incident involving a bus, a skirt, and a lighter. Sasha is an important person to many LGBTQ+ people and what Richard, has done, will probably show as a reason to support them more.
Written by Reverend Charles Kenzie Steele, “The Tallahassee Bus Protest Story” explains the account of two African-American women that were ordered to stand in a jam-packed bus instead of sitting on the last available seat because a woman (who was white) was occupying the end of that seat. Even though the white woman did not mind if the African-American women shared the seat with her, the bus driver stood firm in his belief that it would be inappropriate and beyond unthinkable for people of color to be seated with a person that was white. The two African-American women decided that they were not going to accept this blatant prejudice and proceeded to stay where they were and not stand or move to the colored section of the bus but their efforts were short lived since the bus driver called the police to detain and charge them for disorderly conduct and “placing themselves in a position to riot”. These swift series of event prompted swift outrage and shock among FAMU students and those within
There are many restrictions in society that bind us to certain categories. Whether it be male vs female, rich vs poor, good vs bad, or child vs adult, these categories determine who we are. The 57 Bus is a book about breaking free from these restrictions. Sasha, a white teen living in the better parts of Oakland, is trying to figure out their gender and who they are in the world. Richard, a black teen living in the parts of Oakland more ridden by violence, has completely different circumstances, trying to figure out the spectrum of good and bad and where he belongs on it.
The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963 is actually a great book. Christopher Paul Curtis did a wonderful job writing this book. This story faces a lot of things that was going on in the 60s. This story had so many lessons to learn from. They were hatred, and bullying.
Grandmother, on the other hand, values the idea of appearing to be a good person over anything else and can’t acknowledge that The Misfit would have different values. She is so focused on clinging to this philosophy that she barely notices when her family gets shot and continues with her ineffective argument
Throughout the play you find Carolyn insulting Veronika and pushing her buttons in hopes of getting her to agree to kill her. Veronika learns Miss Carolyn had a husband that died, and no children. Whiles Veronika reveals to her that she can 't have children, and she is transgender. Carolyn became extremely upset and insults her by saying that she is sorry and confused. After a while she seemed to accept her more.
“School started again. Sasha was accepted into MIT. By February life had slipped back into normality” (223). At this point Sasha’s life was returning to normal with a few exceptions; however, Richards was nowhere near normal, he was in hearings and back in juvie. Richard has no normalcy, he didn’t know if he will be on trial, still in juvie, or in an adult prison within that same month.
An individual's morals and beliefs are developed with age through all the experiences one will encounter in their lifetime, though they can be pushed aside when the need to conform with the majority is more prominent. Authenticity is integral to living an honest life and making good decisions. However, individuality becomes difficult to maintain with pressure from others. Because of this, the need to maintain balance between authenticity to one's principles and ethics and conforming to the majority's standard is prevalent in the human race. In the novel ‘The 57 Bus’ author Dashka Slater tells the true story of two teenagers who encounter a crime on the bus as the victim, Sasha, and the perpetrator, Richard.
Josephine Rowe’s (2014) ‘Brisbane’ raises the question of the value of an incomplete story, and if there even is such a thing as an incomplete or complete story (Rowe, 2014). ‘Brisbane’ spans no longer than six paragraphs total yet provides enough narrative for the reader to construct their own version of the story. Rowe’s short story integrates aspects of realism and modernism, blending them to create a piece that both explores un-filtered reality and defies traditional rules of literature. Her work uses a unique fragmented narrative structure, along with an interesting use of narration and time that creates a sense that the present is being haunted by the past.
Many audiences of stand up comedy enjoy hearing their favorite comedian entertain them. But what would one think when a comedian cracks a joke about a sensitive topic, for example, a tragedy that affected hundreds of people. Some may argue that, comedians are not supposed to overstep the boundary of controversial jokes. These controversial jokes are linked with political correctness—which is used to describe language, policies, and measures that are taken to avoid offense to certain groups of people. Comedians are not compelled to restrain from controversial topics due to the topic not being sugar-coated, the higher level of contemplation that the joke can reach, and the job of the comedian—to make the current issue manageable.