The New York Times Magazine, Sunday, August 22 - Unauthorized ...
The New York Times Magazine, Sunday, August 22 - Unauthorized ...
The New York Times Magazine, Sunday, August 22 - Unauthorized ...
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<strong>The</strong> Outsiders<br />
whole school."<br />
Neither does Andrew tell his parents. He believes they think he is popular. "If I<br />
try to explain it to my parents," he says, "they'll say: 'Oh, but you have plenty of<br />
friends.' Oh, I don't think so. <strong>The</strong>y don't really get it." His outcast friends,<br />
however, do.<br />
One of them is Randy Tuck, a<br />
5-foot-4-inch sophomore with a<br />
thick head of hair and cheeks bright<br />
red with acne. He rescued Andrew<br />
from a "swirly" (two boys had him<br />
ankle up, and headed for the toilet<br />
bowl).<br />
Randy moved from Alaska to <strong>New</strong><br />
Hampshire almost three years ago.<br />
To his frustration, his classmates<br />
called him Eskimo Boy. Art is his<br />
solace, along with the occasional<br />
cigarette. He loves to draw. He used<br />
to sketch Ninja Turtles and now,<br />
with the help of an art teacher, he's<br />
studying anatomy. He associates Randy Tuck (pictured at home) sought refuge<br />
among the freaks, who, he says, are "friendly, but<br />
with the freaks during school mainly<br />
not welcoming."<br />
because they let him. He says,<br />
"<strong>The</strong>y are friendly, but not welcoming."<br />
Classmates debate with Randy about his atheism, but he refuses to believe a God<br />
could arrange a life as unlucky as his. Andrew blames himself. Randy says,<br />
"Andrew's vulnerable and small and weak and R. takes advantage of that."<br />
Randy utilizes "verbal bashing" as a defense, although he admits that its powers<br />
don't prevent physical attack. R. surprised him one day in the hallway. He passed<br />
Randy, then turned around and punched him in the spine. But Randy also notes<br />
that R. can be funny. "When he's not in a bad mood, he can be very<br />
entertaining."<br />
Andrew says that the ostracizing "does build up inside. Sometimes you might get<br />
really mad at something that doesn't matter a lot, kinda like the last straw." He<br />
could understand the Columbine killers, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, if their<br />
misery had shown no signs of ending, but Andrew remains an optimist. After all,<br />
there are some people who have no friends. "Things are not going up really fast,<br />
but they are getting better," he says. "I might have a week where they get worse,<br />
http://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/199908<strong>22</strong>mag-boys-social-coping.html (5 of 13) [8/<strong>22</strong>/1999 9:18:<strong>22</strong> PM]