Punishment

Throughout the letter that Perry writes to the psychiatrist, he continually emphasizes that everything in his childhood that he has done or witnessed that is wrong, there has been a punishment in return for the wrong thing that has been done, but these punishments always consist of being beaten and because of this, Perry never learns the meaning of consequences. After Perry’s older brother told Perry was too small to play with his BB gun, the book states, “I grabbed it and held it to my brother’s ear and hollered BANG!” After he shoots his brother in the head he is severely beaten by one of his parents and forced to apologize. This quote shows that Perry is not taught a lesson after breaking out in a violent way, because he is only beaten. The second example of Perry only being beaten as a punishment is when he lives with the Nuns and wets the bed consistently. While Perry was staying with the Nuns, Perry states, “I had weak kidneys and wet the bed every night…I was severely beaten by the cottage mistress.” This quote shows that for a thing that Perry could not even control, he was beaten for and this shows that after he did another thing that was wrong, instead of learning a lesson, he was beaten. And this caused him not to learn the meaning of consequences. Perry was never introduced to a healthy way to release his anger, and therefore never learns the meaning of consequences because he is constantly beaten. And this is why he lives a life of crime with no worries and eventually kills four people.