Son of Satan: analyse af Charles Bukowskis novelle

To be a victim of an assault is beyond everyone’s imagination. To be harassed and picked on, can have serious consequences in matter of time. To be left out of a group as an individual is in itself a really big burden to carry. It can evolve, and become situation where you will feel lonely and really upset, with no one to speak to. The themes represented in this short story by Charles Bukowski, is in fact more than just “Youth and Violence” It’s also about relationships, love and about gaining an identity so you can progress in life as a human being. The most important aspect of this story is about growing up, hanging out around the wrong people and also being influenced by the society and the bad behaviors from both friends and family. The need of social relationships between individuals is a huge factor for every human being. In the story we’re getting an insight view of the narrator’s mindset “I didn’t want to go on with it any longer. I’d figured Simpson had suffered long enough, but I was the leader and I was going to have to fight Hass afterwards and I couldn’t show any weakness.”(P11, L25) The narrator in the story is visualized as being the big and great leader, who is immune to whatever, would attack him. But inside himself he is a good child, who actually has feelings for others. “Maybe that’s what bothered us about him. Yet, there was something nice over him.”(P12, L25) This example clearly shows that our narrator is not as cold-hearted as first assumed. The fact that our narrator felt bad about doing those horrible things he did towards Simpson, tells us that he can distinguish between being the powerful leader and being a normal human being with real feelings. “I had thoughts. My life was over.”(P12, L22) This incident is bothering him, and he behaves as if he regrets what he just has done. Our narrator has two best friends named Hass and Morgan. He is the youngest of the three, but is still the leader of their group, where Hass and Morgan are the participants. The three friends had summer vacation and were spending most of their time hanging out smoking cigarettes and talking about how jealous they were of Simpson because he had intercourse with a girl under the narrator’s house. Our narrator is not excited to hear this at all he seeks revenge and wants to punish Simpson for doing such a thing. They didn’t believe it in the beginning. They thought that Simpson was a dishonest little prick, but after hanging him and making him suffer like a helpless animal, the narrator realizes that Simpson might have been loyal all along.The story itself makes it so you can have different opinion about the themes involved. One of them would be if those children could have avoided being part of these occasions. If they would have had a normal childhood with supporting parents who would have had time and influenced them in a more positive way, then they might have been better children and not so rebellious. To have strong and good friends who you can trust and rely on is really important. To feel the feeling of having someone there for you, who will always support you. But also to have someone who can distinguish between the good and bad things in life. That person should also have a basic knowledge about what’s allowed and what’s not. To end it all off I’d like to say that this story truly touched me emotionally, since I could see myself in those roles since I have experienced being in both situations.