Perspectives

This part of the study guide will help you put Roddy Doyle’s short story “Smile” in perspective, by connecting it to literary period, current issues, and similar works.

Current issues

“Smile” touches upon issues of school bullying, homosexuality and religion, and loss of innocence. School bullying is an important issue, as many students become victims of bullying by a group or an individual. Usually, bullies pick on those whom they deem weak and vulnerable.

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Literary period

Published in 2016, the short story falls within the literary period that we call Postmodernism. This movement emerged after WWII as a reaction to Modernism but constantly developed and diversified through the years and up to the present day. The most important postmodernist features that you can identify in “Smile” are the use of fragmentation and the “show don’t tell” technique.

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Works with the same theme

For the themes of bullying and loss of innocence, we encourage you to also consider short stories like “Kiss and Tell” by John Sam Jones, “Son of Satan” by Charles Bukowski, and Blake Morrison’s “You can’t touch me”.

“Kiss and Tell” follows a teenage boy who discovers that he is gay after he develops a crush for one of his male teachers. His schoolmates bully him about being underdeveloped for his age and even about being gay.

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