History Literature / Blubber

[[caption-width-right:350:It's easy to laugh, but what happens when the joke's on you?]]

* RazorApples: DiscussedTrope. Jill and Kenny's mother make a them give all apples they get when trick or treating to Mrs. Sandmeier to cut up due to fearing that this urban legend is true (though said apples have never had a single razor blade in them).

* ReboundBestFriend: Jill participates in the teasing of the heavyset Linda as led by AlphaBitch Wendy. But when Jill realizes that [[EveryoneHasStandards Wendy has gone too far]], she protests her cruelty and stands up for Linda. Wendy takes revenge by turning the whole class against Jill and declaring that Linda is her new best friend. This pattern continues throughout the novel, and by the end of the book, nearly ''everyone'' has traded best friends, but Jill manages to keep a [[TrueCompanions true companion]] in Tracy, who has shown UndyingLoyalty throughout the whole story.

* ApatheticTeacher: Mrs Minish at times. She doesn't seem to notice Caroline copying all Wendy's answers during a history test, and keeps insisting Jill do the math homework the way she set out despite acknowledging her answers are all correct. Jill outright wishes she had a teacher more like Tracy's and that Mrs Minish would just wake up.

* KarmaHoudini: Wendy never received any punishments despite being the ring leader of two massive bullying episodes.

* ShamefulStrip: After trapping Linda in the girls' bathroom, Wendy orders Jill (dressed as a flenser for Halloween) to "strip the Blubber" and not stop until Linda has to run down the hall "in her blubbery birthday suit." It never gets ''that'' far, but the girls do reveal Linda's undershirt and flowery underpants before letting her off with a lesser humiliation.

** In fact, ''no one'' receives any meaningful punishments for tormenting anyone. Miss Rothbelle gives the entire class a detention for one prank on Linda; it has no effect. Jill and Tracy have to rake Mr. Machinist's leaves as punishment for their prank; Jill, at least, seems to have learned nothing from the experience, as her own father, despite telling her earlier that "It's not up to you to decide who deserves what in this world," won't disagree with her assertion that Machinist deserved it after he actually ''meets'' Machinist. Jill does end up having to suffer through a few days of Wendy's bullying, but it never seems to click for her that how she feels is how she made Linda feel (although the fact that Linda joins in the bullying makes it slightly more understandable that Jill's reaction isn't to empathize with Linda). Even more significantly, however, the reason Wendy starts bullying Jill is that Jill finally decided to ''stand up for Linda'', so even if one might think [[LaserGuidedKarma Jill deserved it]] for what she did to Linda, the whole thing is muddied by the fact that the consequence is a direct result of [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished the one]] ''[[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished decent]]'' [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished thing]] she does over the course of the story.

** In fact, ''no one'' receives any meaningful punishments for tormenting anyone. Miss Rothbelle gives the entire class a detention for one prank on Linda; it has no effect. Jill and Tracy have to rake Mr. Machinist's leaves as punishment for their prank; Jill, at least, seems to have learned nothing from the experience, as her own father, despite telling her earlier that "It's not up to you to decide who deserves what in this world," won't disagree with her assertion that Machinist deserved it after he actually ''meets'' Machinist. Jill does end up having to suffer through a few days of Wendy's bullying, but it never seems to click for her that how she feels is how she made Linda feel (although the fact that Linda joins in the bullying makes it slightly more understandable that Jill has a hard time finding empathy for her). Even more significantly, however, the reason Wendy starts bullying Jill is that Jill finally decided to ''stand up for Linda'', so while Jill finding herself on the wrong end of the bullying could be seen as LaserGuidedKarma for her overall actions, it also means that the only serious consequence she faces is in direct response to [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished the single most decent thing]] she does at any point in the story.

** In fact, ''no one'' receives any meaningful punishments for tormenting anyone. Miss Rothbelle gives the entire class a detention for one prank on Linda; it has no effect. Jill and Tracy have to rake Mr. Machinist's leaves as punishment for their prank; Jill, at least, seems to have learned nothing from the experience, as her own father, despite telling her earlier that "It's not up to you to decide who deserves what in this world," won't disagree with her assertion that Machinist deserved it after he actually ''meets'' Machinist. Jill does end up having to suffer through a few days of Wendy's bullying, but she never seems to recognize this as in any way connected to her bullying of Linda (the fact that it's a direct consequence of ''[[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished standing up]]'' [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished for Linda]] doesn't help).

* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Towards the end of the story, Jill finally decides Wendy has gone too far and pushes back against her -- while it may be too little too late, it's probably the most decent thing she does in the story. She's rewarded for this by having all the bullying that had been of Linda turned against her instead, with Linda herself even joining with Wendy, who had spearheaded the bullying against her, to take part in picking on Jill, which is Wendy's retaliation ''because Jill stood up for Linda''.

[[quoteright:150:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blubber.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:150:It's easy to laugh, but what happens when the joke's on you?]]