Prejudice And Racism In Chris Crutcher's Whale Talk

Whale Talk

Bullying, harassment, and racism is a very common scenario among our new generation, that happens far too much. In fact over eighty percent of people have experienced some type of bullying whether it was physical, verbal, or even cyber bullying. Chris Crutcher saw the realism of our society and the outlook on bullying and wrote the book Whale Talk to emphasize the impact of bullying, racism and violence, and how serious the matter can be. Furthermore how it can affect a person and their everyday lives. In the book Whale Talk we definitely get a taste of real world scenarios, racism and bullying being most significant. To achieve the seriousness of these matters Crutcher used a lot of profanity and imagery that stood out among the chapters and to grab our attention as readers. Out of all these chapters one specific example really stood out to me. Firstly, when we meet Heidi we figure out she has many underlying problems, specifically coming to terms with her race. We significantly see this when Heidi comes out of the bathroom with blood pouring down her arm from scrubbing her skin to “take the black off” with the brillo pad, she becomes excited because she finally feels that her dad will love her and treat her like the rest of his children (Crutcher 263). This moment gives us the visualization of what Heidi’s arm looks like and leaves us speechless. I think this was a good asset to the book because it pulls on the heart strings to grab our

Crutcher definitely got his point across with the seriousness of all these matters. A lot of times we read books, and they don’t really mean anything to us, but Whale Talk was different. I think it leaves a strong impact on anyone who decides to read this novel. I feel that it also gives us a reality check on how to treat others which alot of us do not think twice