The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 Book Analysis Essay Example

In the book “The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963” By Christopher Paul Curtis, Larry Dunn, the school bully of Clark elementary school, steals Kenny's, the narrator, gloves.He even tries to hide the evidence by painting the gloves with shoe polish. After Kenny's big brother Byron figures out about this, he goes and beats up Larry Dunn. After Byron gets the gloves back, he decides just to be mean and further bully Larry Dunn. Although some people think that Byron was unjustified in beating up Larry Dunn, he deserved it because of him bullying and beating up all the other kids.Byron was justified in beating up Larry Dunn for what he had done to the school and the school children.   

The first reason that Byron was justified in beating up Larry Dunn is the obvious reason is that he stole the gloves.He stole the gloves right out of kennys own locker and, to even further the theft, put shoe polish on them to make them look like not the same pair of gloves.The text states “Larry Dunn had stolen my gloves, then painted them black with shoe polish!” This shows that Larry Dunn had stolen Kenny's gloves and painted them to hide the evidence. This is one of the many reasons why Byron was justified to beat up Larry Dunn. 

The second reason Byron was justified to beat up Larry Dunn is that Larry Dunn had constantly been beating up and bullying the kids of Clark elementary school.Almost every day, Larry would find someone to bully.The text states “If you run away during cockeye’s wash i’ma hunt you down and hurt you bad boy.” It also states “Larry was tearing me up, I was crying even before the first rinse cycle was done.” This shows that Larry is a constant nuisance for all the school, he has bullied all the kids at the school for a long time and deserved getting beat up. This is why Byron was justified in beating up Larry Dunn.   

In conclusion, Byron was justified in beating up Larry Dunn because of many reasons, two being that he is a bully and he stole Kenny's gloves.The first and most important reason being that he stole the gloves. The text states “Larry Dunn Had stolen my gloves, then painted them black with shoe polish.” This is the first reason why Byron was justified in beating up Larry Dunn. The second reason is that Larry had been bullying all the kids at Clark elementary school for some time now. The text states “Washing kids faces over by the school.” This shows that he is a bully and deserved to get beat up by Byron. These are some of the many reasons that Byron was justified in beating up Larry Dunn.