Bullying

Bullying is one of the three overarching themes in A. S. King's novel "Everybody Sees the Ants." It affects not only the course of the plot, but appears consistently throughout the novel, either in physical or emotional ways. It affects every single one of the characters in the novel in different ways.

For Lucky, the protagonist, bullying is a physical and emotional trauma. Physically, Lucky is beaten by and humiliated by Nader several times throughout the novel, but Lucky relates that the bullying has been going on for years. Nader torments Lucky in person whenever he is around, but the pain for Lucky doesn't end with having his face scraped across the sidewalk. Indeed, Lucky carries severe emotional scars from the bullying, thinking about it constantly. It makes him feel smaller, somehow less a person than he is.

For those around Lucky, their responses and attitudes toward bullying...