Bobby’s Respect
By Garrett Kitchen
Some might wonder what it would be like to stand up to school bullies.
To respect themselves and their classmates enough to just take a stand, well that’s exactly what characters in this book do. The Misfits by James Howe is a novel about a group of four seventh grade friends who call themselves “The Gang of Five” or “The Misfits”. The main character, Bobby9 (the main character), is among this dynamic group of friends. This particular group of friends decides to run for student government. The Misfits is a beautiful well crafted story about the journey of “outcasts” whom overcome bullying and name calling at their school in the quaint little town of Paintbrush Falls, New York. Even though in the beginning of the story Bobby has trouble with respecting others and respecting himself, Bobby gains self respect and respect for others as the novel goes on.
Bobby doesn’t show respect to himself or others early on in the book. Bobby shows such little respect; he doesn’t even respect his boss Mr. Kellerman. Throughout the book Bobby even calls Mr. Kellerman Killer Man “It is not that I hate Mr. Kellerman, not even that I even dislike him anymore, but I can’t help it. I hope that those two things are all we have in common and all we ever will.”(207). this shows is Bobby doesn’t really understand Mr. Kellerman and doesn’t like him very much and to show this Bobby is disrespectful to him. Bobby isn’t respectful to himself either. For example Bobby thinks: “yeah right. A pretty girl even one, who is socially handicapped like Kelsey Scoggins, does not like a boy like me. And what is a boy like me you might ask? Even if you did not know, I will tell you: a boy like me is fat.”(80). this shows Bobby has low self esteem and disrespects himself, because of his own image. So what Bobby is saying here is that he feels girls will think he is not good looking, and will not want to date him because he is overweight. So gathering from Bobby’s thoughts, he doesn’t respect himself. I think some of the reasons he has low self esteem is because his mother is dead and his father is an ex-alcoholic. Also Bobby is constantly being insulted about his weight and social status from the bullies in his school.
Bobby doesn’t show respect to himself or others early on in the book. Bobby shows such little respect; he doesn’t even respect his boss Mr. Kellerman. Throughout the book Bobby even calls Mr. Kellerman Killer Man “It is not that I hate Mr. Kellerman, not even that I even dislike him anymore, but I can’t help it. I hope that those two things are all we have in common and all we ever will.”(207). this shows is Bobby doesn’t really understand Mr. Kellerman and doesn’t like him very much and to show this Bobby is disrespectful to him. Bobby isn’t respectful to himself either. For example Bobby thinks: “yeah right. A pretty girl even one, who is socially handicapped like Kelsey Scoggins, does not like a boy like me. And what is a boy like me you might ask? Even if you did not know, I will tell you: a boy like me is fat.”(80). this shows Bobby has low self esteem and disrespects himself, because of his own image. So what Bobby is saying here is that he feels girls will think he is not good looking, and will not want to date him because he is overweight. So gathering from Bobby’s thoughts, he doesn’t respect himself. I think some of the reasons he has low self esteem is because his mother is dead and his father is an ex-alcoholic. Also Bobby is constantly being insulted about his weight and social status from the bullies in his school.
Later in the book Bobby is beginning to respect Mr. Kellerman as a coworker and person and respecting himself as a human being. For instance Mr. Kellerman states “sorry I can’t help with your speech Bobby.” To which I say “You already have.” What this goes to show is Bobby is letting Mr. Kellerman in and letting him try to help Bobby with his speech. He now has enough respect for Mr. Kellerman that his subconscious mind allowed Robert Kellerman to inspire his speech. As the book goes on Bobby begins to show respect for himself. An example of this is a few sentences of dialogue between Bobby and Addie (on of Booby’s friends). Bobby: “do you really think I can do it?” Addie: “Absolutely. You’ll be brilliant” I look at Addie and see that she is being serious. Bobby: “okay,” I tell her. “Okay.” (235). What this reveals is Bobby is gaining enough self respect and self esteem to stand up in front of the whole school and read the No Name Party’s speech, which Bobby himself wrote. This reveals that Bobby’s self respect is high enough to take the risk of reading a speech in front of the whole school. Also the whole school cheering for Bobby after he finished reading his speech boosts his self esteem majorly.
In The Misfits, James Howe shows the importance of respect through Bobby Goodspeed and his attitude toward others and himself. Respect towards others and their self has been portrayed in many people’s lives, plenty of books, and throughout history. The Misfits portraits the story of kids everywhere standing up to those same bully's who beat them down with names and physical abuse. “Sticks and stones will break our bones, but names will break our spirits” is the running campaign for the no name party, and is very true. Names can break the spirit, but bully’s only hurt other people because their jealous of them or admire them as a person and it makes them angry. So if there are bully’s harming people, show them who’s boss, stand up for the insulted people of the world.
