"I had my bully, and it was excruciating. Not only the bully, but the intimidation I felt"
About this Quote
Cormier’s line lands like a confession stripped of literary varnish: the real wound isn’t just the bully, it’s what the bully installs inside you. By separating “the bully” from “the intimidation I felt,” he points to bullying as a two-part assault - external cruelty and internal occupation. The second part lingers. Intimidation becomes a climate you breathe, a private law you start obeying even when no one is watching.
The phrasing is plain, almost stubbornly unpoetic, which is exactly why it works. “I had my bully” carries a grim, possessive inevitability, as if everyone is issued one, like a bad locker assignment. That casual ownership sharpens the critique: this isn’t an aberration, it’s a social arrangement. “Excruciating” then spikes the sentence with bodily pain, refusing the cultural downgrade of bullying into “kids being kids.”
Cormier’s broader work - especially The Chocolate War - treats adolescent life as a political system in miniature, where power operates through humiliation, rumor, and enforced silence. This quote fits that worldview: intimidation is not merely fear, but a method of governance. It trains compliance, isolates targets, recruits bystanders into complicity. The subtext is adult, even if the scene is youthful: institutions often protect the smooth functioning of the group over the person being harmed.
He’s also quietly arguing for moral seriousness about psychological damage. The bully is a person; intimidation is the lasting architecture the person leaves behind. That’s the excruciating part Cormier won’t let you look away from.
The phrasing is plain, almost stubbornly unpoetic, which is exactly why it works. “I had my bully” carries a grim, possessive inevitability, as if everyone is issued one, like a bad locker assignment. That casual ownership sharpens the critique: this isn’t an aberration, it’s a social arrangement. “Excruciating” then spikes the sentence with bodily pain, refusing the cultural downgrade of bullying into “kids being kids.”
Cormier’s broader work - especially The Chocolate War - treats adolescent life as a political system in miniature, where power operates through humiliation, rumor, and enforced silence. This quote fits that worldview: intimidation is not merely fear, but a method of governance. It trains compliance, isolates targets, recruits bystanders into complicity. The subtext is adult, even if the scene is youthful: institutions often protect the smooth functioning of the group over the person being harmed.
He’s also quietly arguing for moral seriousness about psychological damage. The bully is a person; intimidation is the lasting architecture the person leaves behind. That’s the excruciating part Cormier won’t let you look away from.
Quote Details
| Topic | Fear |
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