The butterfly effect

Kevin Michael once said, “Small shifts in your thinking, and small changes in your energy, can lead to massive alterations of your end result.” The butterfly effect implies that One diminutive cause leads to an unforeseen outcome. The way people treat us leads us to the stage we are in right now; beneficial or disadvantageous, it eventually shapes our personality. Similarly, In the short story, “A Teachers Reward” by Robert Philips, a boy named Raybe who comes from a lower level of social class, is teased by his classmates and cruelly punished by his third-grade teacher, Mrs. Scofield. She rapped his knuckles for things he did not do. As a result, Raybe grew up and served ten years in jail and ultimately seeks vengeance. In “Long Long After School” by Ernest Buckler, an African American boy named Wes was taunted and insulted because of his racial background. Everyone picks on Wes, expect his third-grade teacher, Ms. Trethewey (Miss). She is a supportive and sympathetic role model and a significant factor in Wes’s personal growth. Ultimately, Wes and Raybe were both impacted by their teacher’s way of conduct and its inevitable effect in their childhoods. In other words, childhood events can shape whom we become as adults.

A role model like a teacher will effectively influence a person as they become more mature. A teacher is like an artist shaping a sensational masterpiece, growing and forming its identity by one’s strong aptitude. Both Ms. Trethewey and Ms. Scofield altered the lives of their peers Wes and Raybe, in utterly opposite paths. Wes is thankful to have a teacher like Ms. Trethewey. Ms. Trethewey sees Wes as the person who he truly is. As a result, “she was beautiful” (Buckler 50) in Wes’ eyes. A girl named Marilyn rejected to hold Wes’ hand because she asserted it was dirty, Ms. Trethewey got involved, and she emotionally supported Wes and said, “Wes’s hands are much cleaner than [the girl’s]” (buckler 50). By protecting Wes and showing her support in front of the class, Ms. Trethewey demonstrated her sympathetic, loving personage by her right action. For the first time in his life, Wes was able to feel the feeling of being loved and supported. Ms. Trethewey’s memorable behavior towards Wes shaped his personality’s essence and will always remain in his consciousness. In other words, she puts Wes in a route that leads him to the right place and causes him to become the person who he is in his current life. In contrast, Ms. Scofield ruined Raybe’s life; he has been carrying a heavy burden, a scar with him ever since the day she rapped his knuckles. Unlike Ms. Trethewey, Ms. Scofield lacks all the features of a competent mentor by being judgmental, unmerciful, careless, and cold-hearted. Like the rest of the class, “she picked on [him] all the time. Made [him] worse out than [he] was [and] never gave him a chance the others had” (Phillips 380). When Raybe needed his teacher the most, he got punished, abused for the things he did not do by her. Not only did Ms. Scofield damaged him physically, but she also hurt him mentally. Raybe can be saved, instead, Ms. Scofield paved a wrong path that leaves him with inevitable consequences. Unfortunately, it leads Raybe to become a criminal. A teacher is inevitably a significant factor in one’s personal growth.

Wes and Raybe both faced discrimination in their early childhood. Wes is African American, and he deals with prevalent racism which is going around at the time. His peers demean him because of his race. A girl will not hold his hand during a game because “[his] hands are dirty” (Buckler 50). This treatment implies the color of his skin, not his cleanliness. Even when Wes went to the hospital because of punching the window, he says, “nobody felt like taking chances for me, anyway” referring to the fact that the hospital is not willing to use their plasma bottles on a black person (Buckler 52). Since Raybe’s “aunt [cannot] keep [Raybe] in clean shirts” (Philips 386), Most people would misjudge him by his appearance; as a matter of fact, his teacher chooses to assume his personality and identity based on his appearance. Discrimination is morally improper, an unjust treatment, and both characters were struggling with this issue.

Getting teased as a child may leave lasting effects on one’s mental health. Similarly, Wes and Raybe experience Other people’s ridicules and humiliations, simply because they could not conform with the norm. People in school would make fun of the fact that because of his skin “[Wes] is blushing” and every time they would say something about him (Buckler 50). Raybe is seen as inferior by his peers, and their humiliations gravely wounded him. Wes can confront the boys who make fun of him, but “you cannot hit a girl. There just was not anything [Wes] could do about the girls” (Buckler 50). Wes did not feel dejected or lost his hopes by those people; instead he chose to focus on improving himself and becoming a better student. Wes’s teacher, Ms. Trethewey, is the only person willing to stand up for him. On the contrary, Raybe’s teacher is not a supportive, kind person; she meanly bullies Wes. Raybe is compared to the other students and is deemed an outcast for it. Nobody gives him the chance to become their friend. The teacher, Miss Scofield, would call him names like “Baby-Raybe,” which indicates that Raybe is even not safe from (Phillips 381). Everyone made assumptions that Raybe was a naturally weak student and nobody without giving him any chances is that led Raybe to his downfall. He started to assume that he is not equal to other individuals and eventually, became a person whom everyone thought he was. Unlike Wes’s situation, there was no one there for Raybe to console him. In the end, both cases illustrate that as children, the feeling of acceptance and being treated equally is essential in shaping one’s identity.

Children are influenced by many elements in the environment which they shape in and will mature accordingly through their childhood events. Both Wes and Raybe’s lives utterly changed by how society and its factors treated them. In other words, Childhood events will substantially alter one’s identity and personality.