Please Stop Laughing at Me
Written by Jodee Blanco
Poster by Samantha Mack
Summary
Jodee Blanco did not fit in with the other kids. Whether it was due to her looks, personality, maturity, or all three, she was rejected and bullied by her classmates. Jodee tried to be normal, however everywhere she turned, there seemed to be no hope of the situation improving. In her book, Please Stop Laughing At Me, she describes how she got through her difficult childhood and how she stayed true to what she knew was right through it all. Jodee writes, “You don’t get to pick who you are in this life, but you can decide what you become,” (159). Jodee chose to overcome her dark childhood and she became very successful in her adult life. Although the ghosts of her past will probably still haunt her, she is working to overcome them and she now spreads her story for people to learn and act from.
Character Analysis
Jodee is an extremely kind person who always puts others before herself, even though it often doesn't benefit her. She has some health complications that cause her to have a distorted portion of her body, however with time she corrects those problems and she now appears like any other person. She is a hard worker and she puts an obvious effort into everything that she does. I think that all of these traits and more are the things that contribute to Jodee being so successful with everything she does. As Jodee described a personality type that is similar to hers- "As the years passed and the rejection she endured in school became buried in a secret place in her memory, she discovered she had a gift..." (13).
Conflict/Resolution
Throughout her book, Jodee deals with more than one type of conflict. However the most dominant conflict that caused her the most distress was character vs society. Jodee gets severely bullied by the people in and outside of her school. Jodee wrote that people at her school said things like "Too bad you weren't a miscarriage," (138) and they also physically bullied her by doing things like throwing rocks at her. She tried to solve her problem by standing up for herself but it just caused her more harm in the end. To effectively resolve the problems, she avoided the conflict and waited until her peers were mature enough to see that what they had done was harmful.
Theme
The most dominant theme that people should take away from Jodee's story is "Sometimes you need to take a few steps back in order to be able to move forward." I believe that this is the most important theme that relates to this book because Jodee describes how her social life started out normal and then it took a dive, which is where she struggled. However once she was able to overcome her struggles, she was able to make important strides towards better things.
Textual Evidence
Jodee did a fabulous job describing how it feels to be bullied and she also puts it into perspective to show how it can have long term effects. My favorite quote from Jodee's book is when she is describing her anxiousness towards seeing her classmates again. As she describes it, "They destroyed my self-worth so much that it's taken me twenty years to stop hating myself," (3). I think that this is a very powerful statement because it shows that bulling can really stick with people throughout their life. It also has the ability to open people's eyes so that they are more aware of what they're saying and they don't say anything that will hurt someone else.
Book Review
After reading Please Stop Laughing At Me by Jodee Blanco, I believe that the book has a lot to offer, however I'm going to settle for giving 4/5 stars. I have given it this rating for numerous reasons. In the book, Jodee uses copious amounts of detail while describing the situations that she went through, however I thought that some of the scenarios seemed too brutal to be true, which made me question the authenticity of any of the information. Even with all of that, I found that the book kept my attention and anything that is able to do that is worthy of some stars.
Multi-Media Sources
Bars & Melody - Simon Cowell's Golden Buzzer act | Britain's Got Talent 2014
Citations
Works Cited
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"What You Can Do." Home. Web. 05 May 2016.