Analyse af 'Son of Satan' af Charles Bukowski

Son of Satan was written in 1982 by the famous storyteller, Charles Bukowski. Son of Satan is like a lot of Charles Bukowski’ other work, disturbing. In this story there has been put a focus on the theme violence, in the two forms of physical bullying and domestic violence. The story starts with, three young boys, sitting in a backyard, smoking and talking about, how much they hate the neighborhood kid, Simpson. Simpson has been telling people that he fucked a girl under the main characters porch, and the boys are furious about this announcement, therefore they are going to kill him. The main character and his friend Hass, are very alike, they are both trying to one-up each other. Morgan, the third of the friends, are not like the other two boys. He is worried about the whole situation, even though he helps his friends bully Simpson verbally. Morgan does not actively participate in Simpsons beating, but he says some nasty things, such as “you don’t even have a dick! You piss out your ear” (p 40; l 27-26). Even though being a part of the bullying, Morgan clearly becomes uncomfortable, when the bullying becomes physical. He feels empathy for Simpson, and wants to make sure that he is okay “You think he can breathe?” (p 41; l 26) and when Morgan realizes that, the main character and Hass are not going to stop, before Simpson is hanging, he says “Maybe we shouldn’t” (p 42; l 29). He wants the other boys to stop, and he tries to make them back off by saying “look, he’s pissed himself” (p 42; l 32) as if the embarrassment of pissing yourself, could be punishment enough. Therefore, Morgan is out of the ordinary, compared to the two other boys. The main character and Hass are both trying to be the alfa male. They both want to be, superior to the other. The main character is scared to back down from the bullying, because it is going to make him look weak ”I didn’t want to go on with it any longer. I figured Simpson had suffered enough but I was the leader and I was going to have to fight Hass afterwards and I couldn’t show any weakness” (p 42; l 25-28). Then Hass is going to take the upper hand and be the alfa. The main character feels that, if he stops bullying, he will not be a man anymore. That can be a result of a tough childhood. One thing that makes this clear, is that the father hits his son in the end of the story. “There was a blinding flash of light and a blow so hard that I really didn’t feel it. I was on the floor. I got up.” (p 44; l 36-37) A violent father is definitely a huge part of a potential tough childhood, which, more than likely, can have affected him. Another thing that proves that, he is afraid and angry with his father is found when the main character says: “You better kill me, I said, because when I get big enough, I’m going to kill you!” (p44; l 39) This is maybe the best example of the relationship between the father and his son. This shows how much they hate each other and how much they actually have in common.