This post will focus on a specific portion of Bill Konigsberg’s “After”. As stated in the title, it will be mainly about the school and friend portion of this story. The best place to start is why “After” is told from a second-person point of view. The reason being, the author can put the reader in the shoes of their character. In this case, the author puts us in a gay 16 year old in high school. Throughout the story, we, the reader, are put through the same bullying, discrimination, and insecurity that the character is.
The second-person point of view is enhanced by Konigsberg illustrating emotions through sentence length rather than telling us what we feel. Naturally, when someone feels sentimental or strongly about something, they tend to elongate their sentences or thoughts. But, when someone dislikes something or is aggravated by it, they have shorter, more sporadic sentences or thoughts. The reverse is also true. By making sentences longer or shorter an author can strategically manipulate the emotion of a piece without directly stating it. This helps to translate the anger, frustration, and pain that the author is trying to convey.
Konigsberg also vividly describes the methods used by the character’s peers to harass him, as well as how the character reacts. The best example would be, “when they pushed your head into the side of the table, you thought maybe it would puncture, leave a scar. They were smarter than that. Both times, they only left marks under your clothes.” Those lines are a small selection of what Konigsberg uses throughout the story. I was able to imagine the banging of my head and the group of bullies around me when I read that.
The vivid imagery and illustrations of emotion via sentence length work beautifully with a second-person narrative, creating the experience of the reader being bullied, lonely, and unable to ask anyone for help. More specifically, the techniques allow Konigsberg to add his view on “how bullying can affect a LGBT youth” by vividly describing bullying events and putting you in the teen’s mind with a second-person point of view and indirectly provoking emotion with sentence length.
Works Cited
Konigsberg, Bill. “After.” Sudden Flash Youth, edited by Christine
Perkins-Hazuka, Tom Hazuka, and Mark Budman, Persea, 2011, 30-
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