Juvenile Delinquency: An Analysis of Todd Bowden in Stephen King’s Apt Pupil 投稿類別：英文寫作 篇名： Juvenile Delinquency: An Analysis of Todd Bowden in Stephen King’s Apt Pupil 李諭汶。國立新竹女中。二年一班 秦書淮。國立新竹女中。二年一班 張若瑜。國立新竹女中。二年一班 指導老師： 陳俐婷老師 Juvenile Delinquency: An Analysis of Todd Bowden in Stephen King’s Apt Pupil 1. Introduction Stephen King is known for his horror fiction, which captures the darkest side of human nature and enthralls the readers with its thrilling plot. Apt Pupil is a novella collected in Different Seasons. It reveals how violence and cruelty inside a teenager’s mind can dominate his thought and transform him into a cruel murderer. In Apt Pupil, Todd, the main character, was a gifted thirteen-year-old boy. However, things changed when Todd accidentally got the opportunity to read Nazi-oriented information in a magazine. Practically, he immediately became obsessed with it. Todd then coincidentally discovered that his neighbor, Dussander, was a Nazi commander in the concentration camp during WWII. In order to obtain every Nazi-related detail, Todd forced Dussander to tell him those horrifying stories in the camp. Hooked on the cruelty of the Holocaust, Todd’s evil side of himself began to be on top of all his thoughts. Because of parental neglect and continuous contact with Dussander’s quirky stories, Todd’s became more and more paranoid as he grew older. Todd was sometimes aware of this; nevertheless, Dussander threatened him if he quit, both of them would be in trouble. As time went by, Todd picked up the hobby of killing. At first, he only took the lives of small animals, but later he turned to winos to quench his thirst for blood. Everything went wrong when Dussander was recognized by a victim of the concentration camp in the hospital. Afraid of being brought to justice, Dussander committed suicide in desperation. As for Todd, his crimes were finally revealed to the public when the police launched the investigation. In the fiction, Todd used to be an “apt pupil,” but he turned into a cold-blooded murderer in the end. The drastic contrast of his personality and behavior before and after he met Dussander arouses our interest; thus, we will discuss the main factors that lead to Todd’s deviant behavior by referring to mainstream psychological theories related to juvenile delinquency. 1 Juvenile Delinquency: An Analysis of Todd Bowden in Stephen King’s Apt Pupil 2. Factor 1: Todd’s Family “Dysfunctional family settings — characterized by conflict, inadequate parental control, weak internal linkages and integration, and premature autonomy—are closely associated with juvenile delinquency.”(UN Press, World Youth Report, p.195) This shows how critical family is in disciplining adolescents’ behaviors. Since home is the place where we are first educated and socialized, it has a lot to do with our personality development. According to Diana Baumrind’s study (1978), the parenting style of Todd’s parents can be classified as “indulgent,” which she defined as “Parents behave more passively in matters of discipline. They place relatively few demands on the child’s behavior, giving the child a high degree of freedom.” (L. Steinberg, p142) Another famous psychologist Dornbusch also indicated that juvenile delinquents are usually less carefully monitored by their parents (1985). In this chapter, we will analyze Todd’s family and his interactions with his parents, which play an important role in the development of his personality and external behavior. 2.1 Upbringing Unlike most adolescent criminals who usually come from poor or incomplete families, Todd was born to wealthy, well-educated parents. His deviant behavior, therefore, was not caused by poor economic backgrounds but was the outcome of his parents’ misconception of parental discipline. First, they assumed that they didn’t have to worry about Todd’s behavior since he was an apt pupil. Even if he made some mistakes, Todd’s parents would never spank him because they believed that “Corporal punishment causes more problem than it cures.” (Stephen King, p.117) However, they didn’t realize parental discipline didn’t mean corporal punishment only. It is a matter of correcting children’s behaviors and providing appropriate lectures when necessary. Moreover, Todd and his parents seldom shared their feelings with one another. Lack of communication and supervision finally led to weak linkages between them and Todd, and gradually Todd went beyond their control. Second, they 2 Juvenile Delinquency: An Analysis of Todd Bowden in Stephen King’s Apt Pupil gave Todd excessive freedom, which is believed might cause premature autonomy, meaning adolescents don’t have the ability to mend their own misbehavior. Todd’s parents allowed him to “explore” the world by himself, which they believed was a way for children to find out the good as well as the bad about life. Therefore, they would try to provide everything Todd needed; even a fingerprint set, restricted books, and a riffle, which were not appropriate for his age at all. In short, indulgent parenting style and Todd’s enjoying excessive freedom brought him to Dussander and triggered all the tragedy. 2.2 Todd’s Father Todd’s father Richard Bowden is an irresponsible father. It is believed that fathers play an important role in shaping adolescent’ (especially boys’) personality and values. Parental deviant behaviors are not only bad models for adolescents but also the cause of disrespect to authority. In Todd’s case, seemingly his father Richard was a responsible and open-minded man, but his affair with his secretary severely ruined Todd’s trust in and respect for him. Also, Richard’s neglect to Todd’s changes made himself an irresponsible father. When his wife Monica was trying to discuss Todd’s weird behavior with him, he simply regarded it as “being growing up.” He believed that parents shouldn’t always interfere in children’s privacy, and said, “He (Todd) didn’t want us to see what his left hand is up to.” (Stephen King, p.187) He insisted if there was nothing wrong with Todd’s grades, he would not forbid him to visit Dussander. To sum up, Richard’s deviant behavior and being too confident in Todd were also factors contributing to Todd’s delinquency. 2.3 Todd’s Mother Todd’s mother Monica was very proud of Todd being an apt pupil and outstanding athlete, but she somehow neglected the importance of monitoring his son. She complimented Todd on his kindness to read to Dussander by saying, “You’re a peach to be taking so much of your spare time to read to him (Dussander).” (Stephen King, p.135) However, there were times that Todd found his mother’s concern for him disgusting and troublesome. Perhaps it was one of the reasons that 3 Juvenile Delinquency: An Analysis of Todd Bowden in Stephen King’s Apt Pupil Todd refused to express his thought to her. But the most serious problem was Monica’s negligence. As long as Todd remained an apt pupil, she believed that she and Richard had taught him properly. As for her duty to discipline and supervise her son, Monica actually noticed Todd’s abnormal behavior at first. But after her husband told her that she was too worried about her son, she began to disregard Todd’s changes. Only when she received the suspicious phone call from Dussander did she worry about Todd again. However, she chose to trust his son that there was nothing wrong with Dussander and him. Because of excessive trust and indulgence, Monica missed the critical opportunity to save his son from destruction. 3. Factor 2: Todd’s Personality Traits “During adolescence, important shifts occur in the way individuals think about and characterize themselves. As they mature intellectually and undergo cognitive changes, they come to conceive of themselves in more sophisticated and differentiated ways.” (L. Steinberg, p.258) According to the passage, it is believed that adolescent mentality and characteristics play an important role in forming one’s behaviors. As adolescences grow older, the influence of these factors becomes more severe. Therefore, in this chapter, we will discuss how Todd’s personality traits affected Todd in the development of his deviant behaviors. By analyzing the plot, we can learn that Todd was a precocious, suspicious, and suppressed teenager. Though he obeyed authority on the surface, he was actually cynical about the reality deep inside his heart. These characteristics combined led to his deviant behaviors. 3.1 Precocity Unlike average teenagers, Todd experienced a dramatic moment in his searching for self-consciousness. Most average teenagers feel confused about themselves and their own thoughts. They struggle over time to figure out who they are and whether what they do is appropriate or not. Growing seems a time-consuming process for them. On the contrary, Todd showed his precocity quite early. One evidence was when Todd 4 Juvenile Delinquency: An Analysis of Todd Bowden in Stephen King’s Apt Pupil and his friends were in the garage. His friends, like average teenagers, were searching among the popular comics, while Todd was fully fascinated with the magazines about the Nazis. At that very moment, Todd knew he had found the “GREAT INTEREST” their teacher told them to discover for their life. Apparently, he was aware of his precocity. “It was an adult thought, and he always mentally congratulated himself when he had one of those.” (Stephen King, p.112)However, he wasn’t capable of having the precious curiosity in control. This, along with strong self-consciousness, unfortunately sent Todd on the wrong road, turning him from an apt pupil who had a bright future into a criminal.