Reality Boy By Gerald Faust

Gerald Faust grew up dysfunctional, misunderstood, and without care or love showed to him. His mother was passive-aggressive, his older sister was a sociopath, his father had given up and can’t even be around his family anymore, while his other sister was a runaway. Gerald was verbally and physically abused his whole life. Now he’s seventeen and he’s traumatized; he’s traumatized and angry. He’s angry at life and he can’t do anything about it. Notably, violence is an important theme in Reality Boy. Thus, every violent action expressed by Gerald is reasonable and is meaningful.

For instance, ever since Gerald was a young child he had been angry and misunderstood. Furthermore, his psycho sister, Tasha, abused his mother, him and his other older sister, Lisi. His mother had brought in a reality tv show to their home to earn more money, and labeled him as retarded. Therefore, as a reaction, Gerald had punched holes walls and excreted all over his house, giving him the name “Crapper,” which stuck with him all his life. In particular, when he realized no one really understood him, other than his father and Lisi, he built up anger in him, having no other way to express his frustration at life. He had eventually punched the fake nanny, as she once showed kindness, later only used him for the rates of the show.

What is more, as Gerald grew older, everyone made fun of him.

Everywhere Gerald went, parents and kids didn’t look at him as who he was, but as to what the reality show depicted him as. This made him more frustrated and angry. Gerald felt hurt and started to hated himself, no one believed in him anymore, other than his father and Lisi, but they couldn’t do anything about it either. He tried running away into his own dream world, zoning out everyone else, but he could only keep that up for so long. Eventually, one boy had taunted and ridiculed Gerald so much, he couldn’t take it. Gerald had attacked the boy and ripped a chunk of skin off the boy’s

face.
Soon, Gerald reaches high school, where everything got worse. The words of hate and despise had followed him there too. His own mother had begged the school for him to take SPED classes, because she tried to continue the retarded label she gave him so she wouldn’t be viewed as a horrible mother. This is when Gerald started taking anger management and started up boxing. He released his anger and frustration through boxing, because anger management was no use to him. Soon, he gets involved into a match and a fight, because of his sister and the taunts of another guy.
In Reality Boy, Gerald is traumatized and broken. He’s misplaced and misunderstood by everyone around him. Gerald means no harm and has no other way to express himself. So, he holds in his anger and frustration, but as days and years go by, it slowly crumbles. He’s only violent when there’s no other way to handle the situation. On the other hand, he’s been abused his whole life, which explains his pent up emotions. Hence, the fights and small violent actions he’s involved in; these aren’t just violent actions, they’re battles with himself, and his way of breaking down.