Mass Shooting / Gun Violence
The story follows the events surrounding a school shooting at a fictional institution in Opportunity, Alabama. The fictional story however delves into the sensitive yet prevalent culture of gun violence in school institutions. It offers different points of view from the school shooter, Tyler, his close family members, to friends and school mates. Tyler walks into an auditorium full of his schoolmates wielding a gun beginning the violent turn of events thereof. The heavy subject matter is one that has initiated several discourses in the 21st century about gun violence, bullying, and mental health. School shooting and gun violence in general are a culture that has caused many to delve into why the perpetrators do what they do. In the novel, the author offers the mindsets of the main characters particularly that of Tyler into the motives of his actions.
Grief and Mental Health
Motives behind mass shootings and gun violence have always been found to be attached to mental anguish or illness. In this instance, the case is not much different as the attacker Tyler is one who struggles with mental anguish before the event. The story is narrated by four characters offering their mental states and thought processes. As teenagers who are coming of age, they have anxieties regarding the future, happiness, alienation, and acceptance. Therefore the reader observes how each character is dealing with their own angst or grief. Tyler and Autumn are both grieving as their mother passed away following a car accident. Since then things have not gone back to normal for them and their relationship continues to suffer. Thus, grief is something each character is experiencing in one way or another. However, Tyler lets his grief take over him, in addition to his anger towards his life and his community pushes him into mental anguish. Rather than deal with it healthily as everyone does with their own sadness, he chooses to take a violent turn thinking his loneliness is unique demanding an audience.
Abuse and Trauma
Physical and emotional abuse are also aspects found in the lives of the characters demonstrating how it impacts them. Moreover, how the victims of abuse tend to inflict pain on others taking the role of an abuser too. Tyler is raised in a household with an abusive father who creates an uneasy environment at a place they should feel safe. Tyler is shown gradually becoming abusive towards his sister Autumn which further extends to him abusing her girlfriend, Sylvia too. He becomes a social pariah as he picks fights with his nemeses and also school mates who rub him the wrong way. He traumatizes other students as much as he is traumatized which shows his exasperating violent behavior. Eventually escalating into gun violence against the community enacting further trauma into their lives.
