Bullying is when a person or a group is picked on. Bullying can come in different forms such as physical, verbal, psychological and cyberbullying. Bullies often decide to bully people over and over again and therefore this slowly affects the victim, they may feel afraid or stressed, they could also have thoughts about suicide or have problems with their sleep. In the year ending march 2020, an estimated one out five children aged 10-15 in the UK have experienced at least one type of bullying behaviour, this is approximately 764,000 children, this statistic on its own is just shocking.
The movie ‘a silent voice’ is a true story about a grade school student named Shouko Nishimiya, she was born with impaired hearing and is bullied mercilessly. Despite being bullied she did not get angry or fight back as she felt she was at fault for everything that happened and kept on writing ‘sorry’ in her friendship notebook that she uses to communicate with her friends - she later transfers to a new school. However, years later one of her former tormentors, Shoya Ishida, had become a victim of bullies and sets out to make amends. Shoya Ishida works very hard to learn sign language, so his friendship with Shoko can grow, his desperation to make amends shows his sincerity towards his way of making amends. A critic argues that “A silent voice looks at teen bullying from a soberingly hard hitting perspective that’s uncommon for the animated medium”.
This idea of Shoyo becoming a victim of bullying and wanting to make amends with Shouko, shows that he understands her perspective from what she had felt when he had bullied her.
Bullying affects everyone, some people can react to it in a way that defends themselves, however most victims are affected negatively. Everyone should be careful with how they treat others, as it could affect someone’s life or may even lead to a loss of one. Your words and actions hurt, no matter how small it may seem to you.
