My Friend Dahmer Research Paper

Almost every movie that is based on a book, there will be many differences between the two. My Friend Dahmer, the film, is written and directed by Marc Meyers. It is a film based on the serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer and his troubled adolescent and teen life. Jeffrey Dahmer was incarcerated in 1991 for murdering and raping over 15 men and boys. My Friend Dahmer, the 2012 graphic novel, is written by John “Derf” Backderf. Backderf is a former classmate and “friend” of Jeffrey Dahmer. My Friend Dahmer is an autobiography different from any other since it is written from a second-hand source. Some viewers can take the book and movie as horror, but truthfully, it can be many genres. The genres these fit into are horror, thriller, drama and crime.

He wanted the audience to see what Jeffrey was like as a young boy transitioning into adulthood and see how he transitions into a serial killer. It is so easy to jump to conclusions and paint Dahmer as a bad guy because of all of the terrible and heinous crimes he committed, Backderf allowed the readers to see Dahmer in a new light and see the progression of a serial killer. The way that the graphic novel was written could make some readers almost feel pity for Dahmer. Since the novel is written by an old high school acquaintance of Jeffrey Dahmer, he tells the story from his own perspective. He was able to watch Dahmer grow up and turn into the monster that he became. Backderf explains how he recognized the odd behavior and so did his friends, but they did not think that Dahmer would have turned out the way that he did. Of course, Dahmer was odd and had shown signs of psychopathy, but nobody batted an eye at his

Backderf talks about all of the odd and “humorous” habits that Dahmer exhibited and his broken home life. Jeffrey’s home life was tense as his mother, Joyce, suffered from anxiety and addiction. His mother was on prescription drugs while pregnant and extremely mentally unstable after giving birth to Jeff. Joyce had tried to attempt suicide with the medication that she was addicted to. She was admitted into a mental hospital when Jeffrey was only a child. Lionel Dahmer, Jeffrey's father and David Dahmer, Jeffrey’s younger brother, are only shown and talked about a few times in the book. His parents were in a toxic relationship and had many problems in their marriage. In both the novel and the film, it is portrayed that Lionel and Joyce were almost always fighting and never got along. Lionel is almost pictured as an absent father. In the movie, Dahmer's family is shown a lot more. Instead of the “absent father” picture, Lionel is more involved with his son; yet, still not an amazing father. In the novel, it depicts Dahmer as a loner and how he often spent a lot of his time alone. Although he did not have many friends, he still had made acquaintances with Backderf’s friend group. He would imitate his mother having seizures to his friends by spazzing out, when he had realized that he would get attention for it, he kept doing it. He had gone to the mall with