Celia Behind Me Summary

Being bullied is a serious matter, filling the news are stories of young boys and girls resorting to what they feel is their last option – committing suicide. Suicide may have been the victim Of this short story’s last resort. In the novel “Celia Behind Me” by Isabel Hugging, the reader is presented With the horrible story of the 4th grader Celia, told by her own bully and the main character Elizabeth. The story is told as a memory of Elizabeth and is therefore written in past tense.

Elizabeth is, in the memory, the age of 9 and is having trouble ruing to fit in with the cool kids at school.

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These kids’ favorite hobby is bullying their classmate Celia and though she and Elizabeth are very much alike, she joins in on the bullying. The reader is informed of the recent death of Elizabethan two aunts and an immediate connection between Celia their death is made. Elizabeth makes the simile herself when she compares her mothers description of her aunts’ accident to the shape of Cilia’s head.

By connecting these things Elizabeth channels all her unresolved feelings to Celia making her hatred of her grow. Elizabethan mother and father seem to be somewhat neglecting her.

They have failed in helping her process the loss of her aunts, causing her to be filled with so much hatred, as well as in educating her properly. The mother is instead of teaching her the wrongs of bullying and helping her to handle the situation appropriately, threatening her with karma and a spanking: P.

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3, l. 37-p. 4, I. 1. With this absence of instruction in how to handle herself Elizabeth, afraid to be the next victim, bullies Celia and excuses herself with the justification that she is the one who allies Celia the least.

The story makes its peak when Elizabeth in the end breaks down and starts beating Celia. She describes the memory of this day as being one she will never forget for this was the day she discovered the darkness inside of her. She goes on explaining how Celia forgave her rather quickly but how she could never forgive her for revealing this darkness inside of her. Elizabeth is a disturbed girl filled with hatred and fear. In the last paragraph of the short story’ she describes the connection between her fears, tater and social position.

She uses the word “Echoing P. 6, l. 172-174 clearly displaying the link between these three. The thought of losing her social status with her friends and the hatred of Celia keeps echoing in her mind reminding her of her fear of becoming the next Celia. She explains in the story that she is aware that were it not for Celia she would be the victim; P. 3, l. 56-57. The fear of this brings the negative motivation to bully Celia. The theme of bullying and the consequences that follow clearly dominates this short story.

Though other themes such as guilt, shame and visualization come to mind while reading the story, bullying is still the strongest and also most important theme presented in the short story. The fact that she never forgave Celia could explain the title of the short story. By never forgiving Celia she never truly let go or moved on and therefore Celia is still behind her as she was when they were kids walking home from school. Celia reminds Elizabeth of the darkness she discovered that day and now haunts her as a constant reminder echoing in her head.