Lawrence Teft's Bless The Beast And Children

Lawrence Teft III Rough Draft

Imagine being sent to a camp for “troubled boys” but walking out doing something you’ve never done before. Lawrence Teft is portrayed as the reckless bad boy who ends up playing as a second leader in Glendon Swarthout’s novel Bless the Beast and Children. Lawrence Tefts careless attitude is what got him sent to Box Canyon Boys Camp in the first place. Teft’s parents pay more attention to their money then they do him. Due to that he can get away with a lot. “When he was twelve he stole his mother’s purse. It wasn’t money, he had a liberal allowance. He could or would give no reason.” (Swarthout 107). At age 13 Teft stole his dad’s imperial and took it for a night drive. Later that night he crashed is dad’s car at an intersection. Soon after this idiotic event he hot wired and stole his neighbor's car. The police caught him on his third stolen car that night. After all these events Tefts parents then reached their limit and sent Teft off to “Box Canyon Boys Camp” to learn discipline and gain responsibility. Having to adapt to a camp with people you've never met before was one of the challenges Teft had to face.

Throughout the story Teft and the bedwetters run into quite a few problems. Some problems consist of being followed by gunslingers. Or being stopped by locals. They even went as low as running out of gas. When this happens Teft said “Oh im sorry, im just christ fully sorry” (78). They also ran into more conflicts that may have been avoidable ,but the boys were expecting to run into problems. When they decided to take this trip they knew it wouldn't be easy because they have never done anything this crazy , that's why most were hesitant about it. Except Teft , he didn't care about the problems because he was looking at the bigger picture. Doing something nearly impossible . This shows Tefts Reckless and determined