Give a Boy a Gun is told from the point of view of various people who knew Brendan and Gary. The book is told through the stories these people have of Brendan and Gary, and the stories are all mixed together to build up the story until the shooting. This helps to show the many cultures found in the school, and how the people of each culture viewed Brendan and Gary.
Brendan and Gary are very different from most kids in their school. At the school they went to, the cultures are very clearly defined. The “Popular” kids are made up of mostly football players, some from other sports, and others who are just good looking, or seen as cool by the kids in school. The “Nerds” are the kids on the debate team or the math team. The ones who may be socially
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In Give a Boy a Gun the outsiders primarily consist of Brendan and Gary, but Allyson and Ryan are also outsiders. Allyson and Ryan, however, make an attempt to fit in with kids at school and have some success. Brendan and Gary do not even try to fit in at school, and frankly they do not want to fit in. They hate everyone else, especially the football players who bully them. Part of their culture becomes having dark thoughts about killing and torturing the kids in school. This starts a snowball effect, making the boys darker and darker as time goes on.
One of the major parts of the football team’s culture is to assert their toughness. Most of the players on the team would take any opportunity they get to show off their strength, tolerance for pain, or overall tough nature. In Give a Boy a Gun one of the ways they do this is by picking on the outsiders. They can see how the outsiders are weak and alone. They see it as an easy risk-free way to show off their toughness to the rest of the team. They don’t think once about how badly they are traumatizing the boys they are picking on. Being rough, picking on the weak, and showing off their toughness is just a part of their culture. An example of this is when Brendan is pushed in the hallway. The teacher watching doesn’t see how bad it hurt Brendan, and the football player who did it see’s it as nothing, in fact he likely did it without even