In myths and legends, there tend to be a distinguishable
difference between the hero and the villain. Often times, the hero has some
“noble” duty he must perform while the villain is trying his/her best to make
the hero fail. However, in real life, this is not the case. Often times, there
is a very fine line between criminal actions and justly cause. This gray area
is known as vigilantism.
A fine example of vigilantism is Kyle in Victory Lap. I felt
that what he did was a little too excessive. Yes, he did save a girl from
potentially being raped and murdered. However, I felt that crushing the man’s
head was way too overboard and almost takes away the heroism of Kyle’s act. The
reason is that he hit the man twice.
After the first knock to the head, Kyle simply should have just gotten up and
restrained him. From my personal experience, getting a severe knock to the head
tends to temporarily disable said victim. This would have given Kyle time
secure the man and call 911. Instead, he decided to crack the potential
murderer’s head out rather than waiting for the authorities arrive. This act
not only lead to an unnecessary death, but also traumatized the girl for life.
In the text, George Saunders (the author of Victory Lap) writes, “For months
afterward she had nightmares in which Kyle brought the rock down”. This shows
that Kyle was the direct cause of her damaged mental state after the incident.
In my opinion, it is that excessive force that made Kyle
appear like a vigilante to me. Even though he did save a girl’s life (from a villain),
he ended up murdering someone who I felt didn’t need to die. Yes, the man did
deserve to get punished, but he didn’t need to die a violent death. Also, the
fact that Kyle got a rush from hitting someone in the head also makes me feel
like Kyle is a vigilante. The thoughts that are going through Kyles mind, “Yes!
Score! It was fun!”, makes me feel a little disgusted. It is one thing to save
a person’s life by hurting someone else. It is another thing to get a rush from
the pain of the initial aggressor. I
firmly believe that if this exact case were to happen in real life, Kyle would
not be hailed as a hero. In fact, I think that the authorities would even have
a few words with him and his parents about the use of excessive force. Even though Kyle did get pumped up from some else’s
pain and used excessive force, at the end of the day, he still saved a life. However,
it is the excessive force and rush that turns Kyle from a hero to a vigilante.
I definitely agree with your post, but I also believe that Alison would have been traumatized whether Kyle had saved her or not. As presented in the story, Kyle was going to let that man kidnap her (living with the guilt), or he was going to go too far while attacking that man (saving Alison in the process). Thus, if Kyle hadn't saved Alison, she would have been scarred by the whole kidnapping experience, but if he had, she would have been traumatized by his actions. Then a difficult question remains: Which would have been "better", the boy who did nothing or the boy who did too much?
ReplyDeleteI thought of Kyle of more of a vigilante than a hero, as well. The initial blow created a hero: he saved Allison. However, the second blow is also where I think he crosses the boundary and becomes a bit darker. And I think there could definitely have been a way to save Allison and not go as far as smashing the man's head in. A little bit of self-control would have made Kyle much more heroic in my eyes.
ReplyDeleteI can't dispute the inherent heroism of Kyle's (crazy but brave) efforts to save Alison from a monster. But you make a good point about him starting to cross the line to vigilantism. I think it has something to do with the idea that, for the vigilante, it isn't *only* about justice, or good prevailing: it's personal, in a way that isn't necessarily linked to the evil the hero is ostensibly vanquishing. For Kyle, this episode is clearly at least as much about quieting his parents' incessant voices in his head as it is about stopping this guy from abducting Alison, and especially when he's gloating and threatening to smash the guy's head with the geode--he's talking to his parents'-voices-in-his-head as much as to the man cowering on the ground.
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