Introduction
“The Babysitter” is an interesting story that aims to improve people’s understanding of the world’s complexities and their readiness to appreciate the new normal. The film is cast following a story of a young girl who develops a personal connection with the babies (Petitjean, 1995). The story examines different feelings displayed by different characters in the story. Ideally, learning the language of the film to express different perspectives is challenging. Understanding the theory of mind is another challenge. However, conclusions and inferences can be drawn from films based on evidence and logical reasoning. Fear is one of the primary feelings the authors explain using different characters. Based on this information, the paper is a literary analysis that focuses on inferring bullying as the greatest fear of mothers and pre-middle-aged women.
How Dolly Reveals Fear of Being Bullied
Dolly Tucker is one of the main characters in the story, and he reveals the fear of bullying to her family members. First, Dolly fears that her children are bullied by the unnamed babysitter (Petitjean, 1995). After observing the drastic change in her children’s behaviors, Dolly began questioning the babysitter about how trusting she was to her children. “Down forbidden alleys. Into secret passageways. Unlocking the world’s terrible secrets. Sudden shocks: a trapdoor! a fall…”
Dolly also fears sexual harassment and bullying by his children by the babysitter. After discovering all the sexual immorality of the babysitter, Dolly decides to escape this hurting experience associated with the babysitter. Betsy is another character who reveals fear of being bullied, and she is also one of the long-tolerant protagonists in the story. Although Betsy is bullied, she remains resilient throughout the story. Betsy does not have other company except her siblings and the babysitter. After realizing the character of the babysitter, Betsy decides to be rude to her and her close friends. Betsy pretends to be sleeping, but when her babysitter walks from the bathroom, she wakes up and sees her sexual desire for Jimmy.
Dealing with Bullies and other life problems, Dolly has only one person to trust, love, and share his feelings (Nielsen, 2021). However, Dolly still reveals the fears of her family members being bullied in several ways. The fear of her family member being bullied by satanic forces among pre-middle-aged women in being revealed by Dolly in the novel. Even though the children were besotted with their babysitter, Dolly still fears her children being bullied by evil actions. Generally, fear of their family being bullied by demonic spirits is the greatest challenge among pre-middle-aged women and maybe can be inferred from various articles. Mothers and women encounter various spiritual teachings throughout their spiritual life. Moreover, various biblical stories about satanic forces from strangers that mothers learned can make them develop a fear of spiritual bullying (Rasheed & Suliman, 2023). At the same, mothers are the ones who may easily get worried about spiritual battles with the devil that will make them stick to the word of God just to avoid satanic bullying. At the same time, young teenage boys link events like death and their husbands’ lust as associated with vial attacks. Spiritual teaching explains sexual immorality as the separation between God and evil. Therefore, mothers fear immorality as they learn it is a simple death and destruction to their families.
Low self-confidence is another indication that pre-middle-aged women fear being bullied. Dolly has a low self-confidence that he cannot even trust her husband’s encouragement. ‘What can I say, Dolly?’ the host says with a sigh, twisting the buttered strands of her ripped girdle between his fingers.” Bullying has several impacts, but the back born is fear of making mistakes (Rasheed & Suliman, 2023). Dolly, in this case, was afraid that her husband’s reaction in case of her mistake might be harassing. Bullying may be very large and aggressive, maybe physical, psychological, or spiritual, but the bottom line of it is striving for the power of control over situations through fear and manipulation. Even though bullying is mostly experienced in other public places, the impact of such bad experiences follows women to their homes, affecting their relationships with family members. As the action is heartbreaking and miserable, lower self-esteem is the long-lasting effect of bullying. Also, a pre-middle-aged woman targeted by bullies always suffers emotionally and struggles from the hurtful encounter. In addition, such encounter always makes them fear participating in social events. Bullying makes pre-middle-aged women vulnerable and frustrated, and skips any task assigned to them for fear of being harassed in case they make mistakes.
Betsy, reveal the fear of being bullied by not trusting his babysitter to some extent. Babysitters are among the most honored to hold essential jobs (Rasheed & Suliman, 2023). Imagine taking care of an innocent creature with that one has no relation and making sure that they are fine. At a point when her babysitter tells Betsy to bathe, she refuses to remain in the bathroom alone and even follows her out secretly. “The little girl fights to get out of the bathroom, and the babysitter has a top quote with her back against the door.” Besides, Betsy fears being bullied, so she is eager to know what his babysitter does with Jack when they go to sleep. “Betsy runs naked into the living room, keeping a hassock between herself and the babysitter. ‘Betsy.” the babysitter threatens. In other words, she fears that something will happen when she sleeps. Betsy’s trust in her babysitter fades, which generally infers the fear of being bullied. Furthermore, the fear of being bullied developed when babysitting.
Where Fear of Their Family Members Being Bullied Comes From
Even though his babysitter always reinforced what she wanted them to eat, Dolly came to realize her immoral criticism and her sexual connection to Jimmy. “How about a little of that good hamburger now, Jimmy?”, At that point, the babysitter finally convinced Tucker, Dolly’s husband, to have sex with him. Dolly, fear that her husband will be sexually bullied and her marriage will be put in danger. Ideally, the babysitter was visibly charming the spotlight of being sympathetic, and her responsive assertiveness, however, abruptly changed to a bloody butcher killing two children (Rasheed & Suliman, 2023).
How it directs their actions
Fear of bullying among pre-middle-aged women comprises direct behaviors like teasing and threatening to make them socially isolated and always doubtful. The fear of by bullied among this woman directs their actions in several ways. First, the fear of being bullied directs pre-middle-aged women to be heroes, fighting the battle to defend themselves and their family members. Even though women who fear their family members being bullied are always scared, they will finally become brave. Dolly, for example, was often embarrassed by the sexual behaviors of the babysitter, but she later fought back to protect her family. When Dolly discovers that their dear babysitter has encountered three rep scenarios, she puts his affection for her apart and escapes their grip before they martyr him for peculiar gain and call the police. ‘Dolly! It’s for you! ‘Hello?’ ‘Hello, Mrs Tucker?’ ‘Yes, speaking.’ ‘Mrs. Tucker, this is the police calling…’
Conclusively, fear of their family members being bullied and sexually harassed can be inferred among pre-middle-aged women in the book “The Babysitter.” The story examines different feelings displayed by different characters in the story. The story examines different feelings displayed by different characters in the story. The fear of her family member being bullied by satanic forces among pre-middle-aged women in being revealed by Dolly in the novel. Low self-confidence is another indication that pre-middle-aged women fear being bullied. Dolly has a low self-confidence that he cannot even trust her husband’s encouragement. Even though the children were besotted with their babysitter, Dolly still fears her children being bullied by evil actions.
References
Bougerol, M. Reception and the Real in 20th and 21st Century American Short Fiction: Robert Coover’s “The Babysitter”(1969), Ben Marcus’s “Cold Little Bird”(2018) and Brian Evenson’s “Born Stillborn”(2019).
Nielsen, P. (2021). ” The Babysitter”: A Critique of the Modern Relationship with Television. Americana, 1(2).
Petitjean, T. (1995). Coover’s the Babysitter. The Explicator, 54(1), 49-51.
Rasheed, L. A., & Suliman, A. H. (2023). Time as a Form of Temporal Distortion: A Postmodern Study of Robert Coover’s The Babysitter. Journal of Al-Farahidi’s Arts, 15(52| First Part).
