Saturday, December 18, 2010
Todd
So once again, I guess we'll start out with the main character. What do you guys think about Todd? Do you think he is more overly curious, or just insane? Also, does he share any traits with any of the other main characters we've read about so far, Andy (who they talked about in this story by the way, which was kinda cool), or Gordie? You could talk about Chris too if you wanted to add him in there.
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Todd's character in the book doesn't seem to match what he should be. It described him in the beginning as this perfect child with a perfect family. He is taking advantage of Dussander and is ruining his life. Todd does not see this and keeps pushing for more stories. As still a young boy, I wouldn't say that he was quite insane. But he's definitely on the border. I'd just say that he's not old enough to realize what he is doing to this poor old man who just wants to forget about the past. Todd is being really crude and inconsiderate.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that Todd shares many traits with any other characters. The only comparison I can see is with Andy, in the fact that he is persistent and knows that he can get what he wants. I also thought is was pretty cool including Andy in the story
Todd is definitely not a cool guy like Andy was.
I agree with Andrew. Todd seems to be a good child at first, but it appears as if there's a lot going on in his mind. He seemed to enjoy "controlling" Dussander like he did. He's not completely insane. He still treats his parents the same so far besides changing his report card. Todd didn't seem to have any sort of qualms against that, which I found interesting because his parents believed him. They seem to believe everything he says. Perhaps they baby him, and that leads to a controlling personality?
ReplyDeleteI don't see any of Todd in Gordie, and I think it's a bit of a stretch to compare Todd and Andy, though I can definitely see how a comparison could be made. The motives, however, were very different. Andy persisted because he had to. He wasn't meant for jail life. Andy had to escape because he had plans and dreams. Todd doesn't seem to have any sort of motive for making Dussander talk to him besides the fact that Todd wants him to.
Todd's not a cool guy at all unlike Andy.
I think that Todd is pretty cool in the sense of being Bad Butt (replace butt with donkey). However, as a child of only thirteen he does seem incredibly controlling and not only this, but sadistic. He spends all of his allowance (over 80 dollars) on an S.S. uniform for Dussander, and then when he found that this uniform appeared to give Dussander even more power as opposed to hate like the original intention was, he forced Dussander to take it off. I think that Todd is like Gordie if you stretch it enough, only because they both ended up becoming very different from their parents (it seems). Gordie was ignored by his parents yet had a very successful life and a family of his own, and Todd is baby'd and spoiled by his parents and yet is abusing this old man and being cruel to him for Todd's enjoyment. This Season is titled the Summer of Corruption, and yet so far I do not see any corruption, because Todd seemed to come to this evil of abuse and lying to his parents in a very short period of time. Perhaps the eight month span can be seen as long enough to make Todd do things such as forge his report card and torment an elderly person, but I do not see this as corruption because the evil seems to come from the inside, not from an external source causing Todd to become bad.
ReplyDeleteNow to contradict myself, I can understand why some (Montgomery) would argue and say that Todd was corrupted. The argument that would be mad would most likely be that the power that Todd was given and the amount of control that Todd has over the old man would cause him to become corrupted, and at this point in the story I'm going to have to say I agree with both sides, and will have to wait until further to see how I truly feel.
Todd seems pretty awesome.
Darn I forgot to mention that I didn't think he was corrupted by this because he had been manipulative before he knew about the old man being so infamous of an S.S. Soldier guy. We know this because of when he told us that he had once wanted to explore under a girl's dress and when she said that it wasn't right, he had lied and said he was going to become a doctor and then she allowed him to do it. Todd was very manipulative even before he "became" corrupted by power.
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with Anthony on this one. I think that at first, Todd was simply curious about an event that happened in history. Granted, it was still kind of creepy that he was obsessed with the atrocities of the Holocaust, but I think he was just an extremely curious teenager. I believe that at first he used the act of blackmailing Dussander simply to get the man to teach him about what happened. As time went on, however, he noticed how much power he actually had over Dussander, how he could basically make the man do anything that he wanted. Then, he began to abuse his power, buying the SS uniform and making him march around the kitchen like a Nazi soldier.
ReplyDeleteAs to the other question, I think that Todd shares a little bit with both Andy and Gordie. I think he is a little bit of a mix of both, just very distorted. He has the cleverness of Andy, and the ability to manipulate people to suit his needs. (Although he was nuts, and Andy wasn't. Andy's cool.) Also, I think he shares a little bit of that childhood morbid curiosity with Gordie. Think about it, Gordie was all excited to see this dead body. Todd was obsessed with concentration camps. Although Todd's is definitely more extreme, they definitely both have at least a little bit of the same thing going on. Chris I don't see any similarities with. Chris was cool, and down to earth, never taking advantage of anyone, which is definitely not Todd.
Yeah, so Andy's cool, Gordie's pretty cool, Chris is cool. Todd's clinically insane, but hey, what are you gonna do. 3 for 4 isn't that bad.
I don't think overly curious is the right description for Todd. I find him to be creepy and borderline psychotic. Stephen King's stories are supposed to be scary, but RHaSR and The Body were pretty much just regular stories. Apt Pupil seems to be the creepiest story so far because of Todd. On the outside he looks like a nice, normal little kid, but inside he is controlling and kind of evil. I'm sure you've seen plenty of horror movies where the bad guy is somebody who looks pleasant and normal but is in reality evil and bloodthirsty (Orphan, The Omen). This is what Todd reminds me of. Todd's interactions with Dussander are not what I would consider normal at all. His obsession with Dussander is disturbing, and the fact that it's because Dussander was a Nazi makes it worse. On top of that, Todd's blackmailing him and in a way torturing him. A normal, sane person would not act this way.
ReplyDeleteYou could compare Todd to Andy or Gordon in plenty of ways if you think about it. However, I think that fundamentally Todd is completely different than Andy and Gordon. Andy and Gordon are clearly good people with positive values and traits, while Todd acts crazy and evil. I hate him.