Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo Sparknotes

(Tab) The Red Ripper, the Butcher of Rostov, Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo: the most infamous serial killer of twentieth century Ukraine with the blood of fifty-six victims on his hands. An abusive mother, a childhood of deprivation in World War II, and a humiliating first sexual encounter (Biography.com Editors 2) led to his interest in murder (Lukacs 4). His morbid crimes are an excellent yet horrific example of man’s inhumanity to man.

(Tab) Andrei Chikatilo’s early life may be the cause of his several vicious crimes. When Chikatilo was born, he had hydrocephalus (water on the brain.) This handicap led to genital and urinary tract problems later in life. As a young child, at the age of five, Chikatilo's mother told him that his older brother

was kidnapped and eaten by their neighbors (“Andrei Chikatilo's Childhood” 5). His interest in cannibalism and murder started then, when he was overwhelmed by the idea that someone had eaten his brother. His mother also influenced his mental state and early childhood.
(Tab) His mother can be classified as abusive due to the fact that she continually beat him for wetting his bed (a symptom of hydrocephalus) (Mayo Clinic Staff 7). She wasn't the only addition to his turmoil though; Andrei witnessed his fair share of violence in his childhood in Nazi-occupied Ukraine. Because he lived as a child during World War II, his family was affected by famine. He was always deprived of basic necessities (Biography.com Editors 2).
(Tab) Andrei suffered from a mental illness called BPD, or borderline personality disorder. The symptoms of BPD consist of compulsive behaviors, hostility, impulsivity, social isolation, a lack of self restraint, anger, anxiety, general discontent, guilt, mood swings, depression, thoughts of suicide, and grandiosity. Chikatilo suffered from nearly all of these symptoms that altered his mood, behavior, and psychological health (Mayo Clinic Staff 7). This disorder led to several series of violent murders throughout the USSR.
(Tab) Because Andrei’s mother was abusive and his early childhood through adolescence was influenced by famine, the personality disorder is easily explained. One of Chikatilo's quotes is, “When I used my knife, it brought psychological relief. I know I have to be destroyed. I was a mistake of nature” (Chikatilo 1). He was referring to the euphoric feeling he gets when he murdered people, therefore Andrei knew that he was a danger to the public and he knew that there was something wrong with him.
(Tab) There are several causes for man’s inhumanity to man. A prime example being Adolf Hitler with his dictatorship and antisemitism. The Red Ripper is yet another example, but why did he do what he did? Why is man inhumane to himself? In Andrei Chikatilo's case, it was the result of childhood trauma and borderline personality disorder. He associated intercourse with violence; this violence left his fifty-six victims dead.
(Tab) According to Abraham H.

Maslow’s The Farther Reaches of Human Nature, (insert Maslow reference here when you find the book). We are all born with an animalistic side, but societal standards teach us to shroud that side with “please” and “thank you” from a young age. When people are exposed to animalistic behaviors at a young age, such as eating one another or walking on all fours, they can be expected to act the same way in adulthood. In this case Andrei was exposed to cannibalism through his mother's claims that his brother was kidnapped and eaten by the neighbors, in Ukraine’s famine in which people would resort to cannibalism to survive, as well as his interest in literature featuring similar topics. The idea of eating humans became fascinating to Chikatilo, therefore he kept that animalistic side of himself and used it later on in his adult life.

(Tab) The side of his mental health comes into play when describing the way he killed people. Andrei was traumatized in his adolescence by his first sexual encounter. He attempted to take advantage of a fifteen year old girl but ejaculated in his pants. (genital/urinary tract issues as a result of hydrocephalus). News spread, and his schoolmates humiliated him relentlessly. When taking advantage of her, he was rather violent; watching her struggle and fight back aroused him he then correlated violence with sexual

intercourse.
(Tab) Typically, a person would fear death and be squeamish when discussing cannibalism. Typically, a person would be raised in an environment where and murder is uncommon and frowned upon. Chikatilo was not raised in societal norms; he was raised in a famished, hostile environment where to live was to be tough and cruel, and to die was to be merciful. He chose life as anyone would. He decided on his own to remove himself of the new normal in post-war Ukraine in being kind and humane to others and to continue his own normal, eating people and cutting up their organs. That normal was comforting to him, as normal is to anyone.
(Tab) As humans, we tend to live in a comfort zone; forget Everest, go to work instead.

“Live life to the fullest” is an exaggeration; humans live life to the requirements, and most humans do not live, they simply exist. Man's inhumanity to man is a different kind of living that pushes the limits of living life to the fullest. Chikatilo definitely did not just exist; he lived a dangerous, felonious life. While he lived that life, he took the lives of many other who may have been destined for greatness. That is what occurs when humans are inhumane. Terrorists will bomb innocent people. Serial killers and cannibals will murder and eat innocent people. People who self harm will cut and burn themselves. Nazis tortured innocent people over there race. Therefore, inhumanity upon oneself will always exist because there will always be people who were brought up in challenging circumstances, those who suffer from mental illness, those who were abused, racism, anti-Semitism, cannibalism, sexism, and Chauvinism. Those people will always exist, the problem is not inhumanity, the problem is the human condition, the underlying problems that make people how they are. Andrei Chikatilo was exposed to famine and cannibalism from a young age, and as a result of famine, he became a cannibal like his fellow Ukrainians. Adolf Hitler was an artist, and he was criticized for his work before he got the chance to develop his skill, so he destroyed Judaism before it had time to spread it's beautiful

message and grow through a large group of people. American slave owners bought people because they were taught to believe that not all colors are equal.
(Tab) The conditions of Andrei Chikatilo's early life, and the mental illness that resulted from that, affected his adulthood. Chikatilo's adulthood was laced with morbid crimes that took the lives of over fifty people. Man's inhumanity to man, or Chikatilo's inhumanity to man is almost always as a result of their childhood and adolescence. After all it is the time in which young minds are molded into the obedient slaves of society. Some people like Chikatilo and Ghandi, are more fortunate and some of us are molded into beings that stray from societal norms.