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Line 143: − Rhoda Penmark illustrates the phenomenon of child [[bully]]ing from two different perspectives. She bullies Claude Daigle and ultimately kills him after he shows himself a better student than she in an area of student achievement. Subsequently, she becomes the target, though by no means a victim, of bullying from another, unlikely quarter: specifically, from a janitor who has the mind and emotions of an eight-year-old and thinks that he can "take her down a peg" by taunting her with visions of police investigations, a trial, and ultimately [[capital punishment]]. Of course, the [[United States]] did not subject any of its children to capital punishment at the time, but that does not stop Leroy, the janitor, from trying to fill a child's mind with visions of color-coded [[electric chair]]s for boys and girls convicted of murder. That Leroy would do such a thing is because he is not behaving as an adult, but rather as a child.+ + +
→Bullying
=== Bullying ===
=== Bullying ===
The phenomenon of child [[bully]]ing is perhaps the second most central phenomenon in this story. For example, Hortense Daigle reveals that she was the victim of such bullying as a child, on account of her name. She observes that children can be quite cruel to one another, which is why she is the first to suspect that her dead son died after having become a target of bullying by Rhoda Penmark.
In fact, Rhoda Penmark illustrates the bullying phenomenon from two different perspectives. She bullies Claude Daigle and ultimately kills him after he shows himself a better student than she in an area of student achievement. Subsequently, she becomes the target, though by no means a victim, of bullying from another, unlikely quarter: specifically, from a janitor who has the mind and emotions of an eight-year-old and thinks that he can "take her down a peg" by taunting her with visions of police investigations, a trial, and ultimately [[capital punishment]]. Of course, the [[United States]] did not subject any of its children to capital punishment at the time, but that does not stop Leroy, the janitor, from trying to fill a child's mind with visions of color-coded [[electric chair]]s for boys and girls convicted of murder. That Leroy would do such a thing is because he is not behaving as an adult, but rather as a child.
The ultimate irony is that Leroy has targeted someone who not only knows how to fight back, but who fights back for keeps. Tragically, his mind is incapable of the simple chain of adult logic that would inform him that, were she actually guilty of murder, she would not cower in fear of his accusations when they happened to strike close to home. To the contrary, she would kill him as easily as she killed Claude Daigle. Leroy, with his child mind, fails to process this logic. Result: murder.
The ultimate irony is that Leroy has targeted someone who not only knows how to fight back, but who fights back for keeps. Tragically, his mind is incapable of the simple chain of adult logic that would inform him that, were she actually guilty of murder, she would not cower in fear of his accusations when they happened to strike close to home. To the contrary, she would kill him as easily as she killed Claude Daigle. Leroy, with his child mind, fails to process this logic. Result: murder.