Read `Cruddy` by Lynda Barry and write a unified, well-developed essay that answers `How does the Father`s sociological, physiological, or psychological makeup help us understand his blood lust?

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11 May 2007

Cruddy by Lynda Barry

With the 1999 publication of Cruddy : An Illustrated Novel Lynda Barry has provided a thoughtful , interesting , and provocative novel about Roberta Rohbeson featuring , on the surface , two diverse , but related story lines . The first is the story of Roberta as a sixteen-year-old girl and details what happened to her to cause her to be grounded for a year for dropping two hits of acid in September of 1971 . It is Roberta who gives

the book its name . While grounded in her room she begins to write in her diary with an ominous note of her intended suicide "I planned this way before the drugs were a part of my life . It was my idea to kill myself (Barry two pagers before 1 . This plot thread is interwoven with a more detailed sinister thread that took place five years earlier when Roberta 's parents separated and , at her mother 's insistence , Roberta hide in the back of her father 's car and accompanied "the Father " as she calls him , on a bloody , murderous , cross-country spree fueled by the near constant drinking by her alcoholic father . The spree ended with her father as the prime suspect in the Lucky Chief Motel Massacre and with Roberta walking through the Nevada while covered with blood (Barry . It is unclear however whether either of the plot threads actually occurred within the world of the novel or whether they are the imaginings or hallucinations of a teenage girl being punished for misbehaving

Unlike many books that deal with teenage angst by portraying the protagonist as a person with a "woe is me " attitude , Cruddy distinguishes itself by not falling victim to this self-indulgent trap Roberta is detached from her family . Like the impersonal of her father as "the father " Roberta 's mother is called simply "the mother " Roberta views her younger half-sister Julie with the usual contempt of teenagers who are forced to share a bedroom . Roberta has a matter of fact attitude toward the events in her life and blames no one for her actions . She remembers and acts upon some of the philosophical aphorisms her father espouses "DO NOT HESITATE . NEVER , NEVER HESITATE and L .L .S .S (loose lips sink ships (Barry 30 , 99

The book features a large number of charcoal drawings that illustrate the accompanying text . These pictures provide the reader with the best physical of the father . Page 22 features a portrait of a hard looking man with deep-set eyes and a cigarette drooping reminiscent of Humphrey Bogart . The picture reveals an independent man who will brook nonsense from no one and will not hesitate to use violence should the need or opportunity arise . The father 's face reveals no compassion for anyone , not even his daughter Roberta whom he calls Clyde

Ostensibly the alcohol binge and crime spree of the father starts at the time of the separation of Roberta 's...