Divine Ekwes Thursday 19th September 2013
How does Forde create sympathy for Jimmy in the first two chapters? Forde creates sympathy for Jimmy by suggesting that Jimmy goes to school having to bear the affliction of verbal abuse that’s being thrown at him every day. After the big football game Victor, the captain and supposed star player of the football team, insults Jimmy by making a nasty comment on his weight to an accompanying “volley of gobs and laughter”
He implies that due to the fact that they lost the game and the cup for the school because of Jimmy, he deserved to be bullied and humiliated in front of others about his lack of skill in football. Victor’s comment “Fat Boy Fat” is joined by a “volley of gobs and laughter” from the other boys who were shouting more abusive insults at Jimmy. Jimmy knows very well that the comments wouldn’t be hurled at him unless he dramatically changes. Thus creates sympathy for Jimmy due to the fact that the cruel remarks will be grieving. Readers are made to feel pity for him because the spiteful teasing from those around him is unlikely to stop unless his physical appearance and poor sport skills change. The term “volley” means when a lot of something is fired at you at the same time. This means that straight after the captain (Victor) had said what he had to say, in order to show his disgust and anger towards already suffering Jimmy, the rest of the team started to call out more taunts to Jimmy. As Victor made the obscene judgement about Jimmy, the boys also allied with “laughter”. When you laugh at something you either find it funny or you laugh in agreement to something someone has spoken of. The boys from the team where laughing in agreement to Victor and they were laughing to mock Jimmy. All this is in aid of wanting to hurt Jimmy as a proposal of vengeance. Because of all that is happening Jimmy will feel ashamed and embarrassed. This creates a sense of tenderness for Jimmy by proponing that everyone in his school torments him non- stop, which will additionally dwindle Jimmy’s courage. It will make him feel agonized and the thing that makes us feel commiseration is Jimmy knows that he is not the type of person to recompense because he has done it many times in the past and even now and he will still carry on in the future coming. Later on in the novel, Forde effectively creates more compassion for Jimmy by suggesting that he feels isolated from others around him due to the effect of the bullying he has to face day in, day out in school. Once the rest of the team had gone to their various locations, Jimmy entered the changing rooms and a familiar smell took over him, “it was a smell that made Jimmy hungry”
This implies that because of the game the boys had come in sticky, stinky and sweaty they had left of a smell Jimmy was used to. The term “hungry” means having a desire, craving or need for something. This reinforces the fact that by Jimmy being “hungry” he is not lust for food but he is indeed yearning for the gift of “belonging” that he does not hold in the grasp of his hands. When you belong it means that you are a member or part of something. In other words it means that you fit in with everything or everyone around you. Also when feeling a sense “belonging” in the environment you are in (be it a school or a youth club e.t.c) you just know that you feel safe and part of the others around you. But in Jimmy’s case he does not feel secure in the location you are present in. this creates sympathy for Jimmy because the sneers, looks of disgusts and disgrace from others is never going to change unless they feel that his size don’t matter but his personality which will be never. This will make the readers feel condolence for Jimmy because these trials he goes through is a package that comes with sorrow too much for him to sustain but there is nothing that he can do about it. Also the smell is coming from the boys in the team and Jimmy knows that even though he is