Response 2 Cycle of Violence

I felt a strong realtion to this Swedish movie I once saw called "Evil". It such a beautiful movie. A troubled teenager, Eric Ponti, is constantly tortured and whipped by his stepfather for his bad behavior while his mother watches in silence. Eric is eventually sent to an expensive and high class private school. Immediately after arriving, there are power struggles between the older boys and Eric. We see Eric go through many tests of courage and violence. In the end, Eric Ponti comes back home graduated from school with good grades. And when the stepfather tries to beat Eric, Eric defies all and beats up the stepfather and kicks him out of the house. In the end of this all, the violence of the stepfather got back to him.

In Mamet's essay, we see David and his sister punished continually. Mostly though David's sister is beaten. One day, however, David throws the rake at his sister. What caused this urge, longing, desire to throw the rake? I believe it was the actions of the stepfather that aroused this action by David. The continual loss of the temper and brute actions of the stepfather negatively affect David in the end.

I feel the same remorse for Eric Ponti as I do for David and his sister. Although Eric eventually gets revenge and David does not, the theme that the violence of another person transmits to another person far outweighs everything else. I believe what David did was uncalled for, but he had no control over what was happening.