Monday, December 20, 2010
Dussander and Todd
How would you guys describe Todd and Dussander's relationship? I mean they always say that they hate each other, yet they meet every single day. They say that they are just working together so that they can stay out of trouble, but if that was really the case and they really despised each other as much as they claim, couldn't they just part ways and sort out their own problems for themselves? What do you think is really holding these two characters together?
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I think that Todd and Dussander really do hate each other. The only reason they keep seeing each other is because they need each other. They have both changed, with Dussander reconnecting with the past and with Todd hearing these dreadful stories. They can't just split up now, they feed off each other to keep on living, it seems like. Todd knows that he wouldn't pass without Dussander, and that he also needs to stay with him or else he will get in trouble. Now that they are in this together, it is hard to just seperate and lead normal lives. Todd is still young and needs guidance, and isn't really old enough to sort out all of his big problems.
ReplyDeleteAs for what is holding them together, it is just that they have changed too much over time. In a way, they have become almost similar. Todd is becoming an evil boy, with thoughts of killing people, and the way he ran that helpless bird over. It is true that they hate each other, but deep down there may be a slight fascination they have between each other, something that can't be seen easily.
In some crazy, absurd way I don't think they hate each other. I think it's just that they've changed so much they need each other.
ReplyDeleteBack in our reading before, it said how Dussander had put on the nazi uniform when having a restless night and found it easier to relax. That says a lot. He left that world behind and hadn't thought of it much before Todd found him out, and now Dussander is being reminded of all of these memories. Todd is so interested and wrapped up in his own building insanity and Dussander's stories. I also think that Dussander is going insane as well.
They're like the friends that always insist that they hate each other, but can't bear to be apart because that's just the nature of their friendship. They could definitely leave each other if they both had the WILL to, but they don't. That speaks volumes, so no, I don't think they don't hate each other, and in fact I think they need each other now because they feed off of each other. If they had left each other, Todd would have no "outlet" so to speak for his insanity and Dussander would have to drown his nightmares in liquor. To some extent they both begrudgingly realized this, but neither wants to tell the other.
inb4alexsaysi'mwrong. Haters gonna hate.
I have to agree with Nick on this one. If Todd and Dussander really hated each other, I think they could have easily grown apart and figured out their own problems for themselves. Like Nick, I believe that the two feed off of each other now. They bring out the worst in each other. Both Dussander and Todd have changed greatly. When Dussander first met Todd, he was basically scared of his past. He begged Todd not to make him tell of what he did, where as now, as Nick said about the uniform, he is embracing who he used to be. (I mean, he burned a cat in an oven. If that's not evil I don't know what is.) Todd also used to be an innocent kid (well, relatively innocent), and he seemed purely interested in the concentration camps. Now, however, he is not just curious, but he feeds off of the terror that existed in those camps. He even is thinking about killing people. Both of them have found an outlet for the evil that lives inside them. If they couldn't let that evil out, I think that like Nick said, they wouldn't be able to handle it on their own. I'm still not sure if it's a good thing though that they share this evil inside them. I guess we'll have to see what happens in the rest of the book to figure that out.
ReplyDeleteBoth of them are mentally insane. Not like Andy.
Their relationship is kind of complicated. I think that Todd and Dussander hate each other. They mostly spend time together because they have to, not because they want to. If they really liked each other or trusted each other, neither one of them would cook up schemes to kill each other so the word doesn't get out about their Nazi activity. Even though they seem to hate each other, though, they still need to be around around each other. They are both evil people at heart and this evil in each person is brought out and strengthened by the other person. If Todd and Dussander had never met, they would never develop their unquenchable thirsts for evil and violence. However, they got mixed up with each other and need each other now. This is shown by their violent activity whenever they aren't with each other. For example, Todd crushes a bird with his bike and Dussander gasses cats and dogs in his stove. They also murder homeless people in their spare time. Todd never acted like this before; he used to be a perfect, normal kid. Dussander hadn't had any recent problems either and was settling into a relatively normal life. He even says that since Todd, his nightmares about the war had come back and he could only stop them by wearing Todd's Nazi costume to bed. When they get immersed into Dussander's past life of violence and hate, the feeling consumes them and they change into corrupted people who crave evil, which mostly comes from the other.
ReplyDeleteI would have to say that Todd and Dussander like each other. Although Dussander was incredibly drunk at the time, when he mentioned the title of the story (right before Todd was going to push him down the stairs and kill him) Dussander said that he had grown to like the boy, despite all of the things that he still disliked about him. While in no way do Todd and Dussander care deeply about each other, they're both very similar to leeches in that they need each other to survive, literally and emotionally. Now that Dussander has the letter in the bank deposit box, Todd needs him to survive or he life as he knows it would be ruined, and Dussander was moments away from death before he revealed the recently made bank deposit box that saved his life. I think that Todd and Dussander enjoy spending time with each other because while they are both incredibly different at first (Todd a young boy with a promising future and Dussander an old man with a past he must hide) they both have realized at this point that they enjoy being in power (Dussander commanding Todd to study for hours and Todd with the Nazi uniform and forcing him to tell him war stories). Todd and Dussander appeared different at first, but are both very evil on the inside.
ReplyDelete