While They Slept Part 6

In the final part of this book, we begin to understand the main topic of this book, which is how do you survive after such sever emotional trauma. Instead of making the main character Billy, the killer, the author focuses on Jody, the person who has gone through such a horrible event. When asked about it, she says "That there was no way that I could come from such a horrible background and not be damaged beyond repair"(qtd. on 247). She seems to feel that there is no return from such an even, and she may have comtemplated suicide. This creates the theme that for some people there is no return from this and their life will be defined by this event. She further writes that she loves holocaust literature and "knowing that the thin veneer of civility that masks human savagery is universal in extreme situations made me feel a lot more normal"(qtd. in 248). This knowledge that humans are barely different from savages seems to help her a lot. Knowing that what her mother did was not the only time in the world where someone has done horrible stuff has helped her realize that her experience is not much different. She can then indentify with those who had been in concentration camps.
When Billy goes to prison, however, he encounters a much different environment. Much like his father and his relationship, it is a place characterized by violence. Men have to assert their supiority in the most basic of ways. He says "I just got a repuration as a crazy with a deth wish"(264). He may want to outright die, especially when he first showed up at the prison and may have been overwhelmed with the idea of spending his whole life here. This would create a hopeless situation for many people, especially if they were as young as Billy. One of the most important parts of his stint in prison was his creation so a martial arts school. He writes "This parental-like role gave me a reason to live"(267). He may want to prove to himself that he wasn't a bad a parent as his father was, and that he is different from him. He may also just want to be a in a position of powere where he at least has some control over the other inmates.

While They Slept Part 5

One of the most important topics of this book is how to deal with an emotional trauma. Jody, the sister that survives her parent's murders at the hand of her brother is the prime example of this. She is comforted by Connie, a director of the newly formed Victim's assistance office. She started this because of the horrible experience she had when her grandfather was murdered. She and her husband supposedly had to "clean up the blood and brain matter spattered over his cabin"(206). It is absolutely disgusting that the relatives of the crime victim had to do such a disgusting job. They were obviously barely getting over the brutal murder, and then had to go and see the grisly remains, and clean it up themselves. This may tarnish the memory of her grandfather forever. This also shows in how Jody reacts. She doesn't become the emotional dramatic girl, instead is "but I never sense I'm observing her or experiencing her emotion, only that I'm listening to her report of them"(209). Jody seems to not be able to express how she feels, and instead relegates herself to reporting how she think she is supposed to feel. This kind of traumatic event may not be able to expressed in words.
It's also interesting to see how she described the history of parricide. While initially dismissed as a crime perpetrated by horrible children that had no use in society, it is now being seen for what it is in some cases. Paul Mones, an expert, says this "Courts are finally waking up to the problem. Kids just don't take these actions unless something is very, very wrong"(qtd. on 219). Obviously murder in any case is an evil crime that should be avoided at all costs. Sometimes, however, there appears to cases where it is easy to identify with the abused child. This is closely related to Billy, who as we have already seen, was abused throughtout his child. One of his most profound quotes was that he "didn't really expect his father and mother to stay dead"(qtd. on 222). He had been a failure his whole life, why would he expect this event to succeed? His father and mother had so ingrained in him that they would always be better than him, that I'm sure a small part of him would believe they would have some master plan to come back to life and put him in his place.

While They Slept Part 4

The story continues to talk about how and why Billy would so cruelly murder his parents. It talks about, as he aged, problems began to show in his grades and had social problems. Linda, his mother, is described as " had persevered a fantasy of an entirely different domestic life then the one she had inadvertently created"(147). As someone who had grown up during the 50's where the best thing one could want was a strong and loving family, she obviously felt it was her job to create this, and tried to ignore the myriad problems in her family. She doesn't want to go after her husband, and his alcoholism and domestic abuse, so she goes after her son and daughter in an attempt to assert her authority. She even tries to make Christmas seem real, and the author says "The more unattainable her fantasy of a happy, prosperous family gather round a festive tree seemed, the more fiercely she clung to it...Linda made sure there were a lot of presents under the plastic tree, mostly junk"(151). She wraps plastic junk just to make it seem as though they were a normal family. She has wrapped herself in her delusions, and fails to realize her family is as fake as the Christmas presents she wrapped.
However, some members of their family are aware of what is going on, and are determined to rise above it. Jody, Billy's sister, is described as "As Jody's awareness of her family as ignorant and uncultured grew, so did her determination to transcend her origins"(172). She can plainly see, and as we've seen before, that her parents are not people to be admired. They are people to pity for what has happened to him. Jody is determined to escape this. Her parents now act as examples of what not to do, and every time they do somethign even worse, her determination likely grows even more. She even went to read cheap Harlequin romances. They all follow the same plot, and are nothing more than trashy literature. She reads these though, not for the small enjoyment, but Jody instead says "I wanted them for all the information I could get out of them!"(qtd. on 174). She is obviously desperate to get this information that will help her be a better person, and realizes the only way to do this is through gaining knowledge. This very clearly will help her overcome her problems, and cope with her parent's abuses better than Billy, who may feel that he has no way to escape his parents.

While They Slept Part 3

This part of the book is where the truly tragic stuff occurs when Billy murders his two parents and his eleven year old sister. He had already killed his mother and father, when his sister, Becky, woke up because of the commotion. She says "I'm going down to Mom," Becky told Jody. "I'm not staying up here"(110). She obviously was curious, and being woken up at 12 AM hinders the ability to think rationally. Billy tries to hit her "with the intent of knocking her unconscious ... failing to take into account the fragility of the skill of an eleven-year-old"(112). Although his report from the trial and his current memories differ, it seems to me that he truly did not want to kill her. He knew that it would be a reprehensible act, and surely Becky had not done anything to him as bad as what his parents did. He was probably in a panic and thinking that Becky would tell someone decided to eliminate this potential threat.
Jody as the lone innocent survivor of her family must deal with her guilt in a very different way then her brother. She does however, try to put in into perspective "she measures her loss, individual and personal, against the sweeping tragedies of history, the Holocaust, the Civil War carnage at Antietam, the endless crises on the African continent"(121). This forces her to be humble and try to lessen the impact of this event on her life. By thinking of the worse things that people have gone through, she gains hope that she will be able to survive this, and hopefully flourish. Linda, her mother, on the other hand had different ways of dealing with a drunken womanizing husband. She says "Fundamentalism excused her from the effort of working out her own answers to questions of right and wrong, and it reasured Linda that her long-suffering fidelity would be rewarded even as BIlls's sins earned him a far worse comeuppance"(125). She feels, as many do, that nice people feel last, and that their needs to be severe punishment for people who sin more often. She wants her own piousness to be rewarded, which can lead down to a horrible path where the pious end up sinning more than the sinner.

While They Slept , Part 2

This book continues to follow the story of the Gilley's and what would cause a son to kill both his parents. At this point, we are still following Billy's childhood and it is shocking to me how much he was abused. He eventually gave up and decided to run away, but after 3 weeks returned. His parents were " almost gleeful in his failure... now he would have no choice but to do everything that they told him to do"(67). After this event, I'm guessing Billy would have lost almost all of his self confidence. He had tried to rebel and failed, making it seem as though his parents would always be able to stop whatever he wanted to do. As they say " his sense of self was so impaired that he no longer believed in the possibility of his freedom"(68). He has been traumatized and abused by his parents, but does not have the spirit to rebel as he feels his parents will just be able to stop him. So in his mind the logical connection would be to eliminate his parents, and then he would be able to do whatever he wanted to.
One of the most traumatic moments described in teh book thus far occured at a community pool. Billy was trying to learn to swim with a pair of water wings. Bill ashamed to have a sissy son grabbed him and jumped off the diving board. He would then let go at the lowest point of the dive, leaving Billy to try desperately to swim to the surface. "The hostility-- the malice-- of this "lesson" would have frightened a child who could swim"(87). Bill was so obssessed with getting a "manly" son that he tortured Billy and scarred him certainly for life. It makes perfect sense that "Billy was not only disruptive in the classroom, but also began picking physical fights on the playground"(94). He may have been trying to assert himself and prove to someone that he was worth something. If someone was scared of him, then at least tehy respected him, which was way more than you could say of his father.

While They Slept

For this quarter, I am reading the book While They Slept an in-depth look into why a young teenager would brutally murder his family. It is very detailed and gruesome, and is rather interesting in a morbid kind of way. It describes how Billy Gilley was convicted of a double homicide but left his 16 year old sister, Jody, alone. They both has been abused as children, and the author remarks "Both she and Billy had wished their parents dead"(36). This shows the depth of hatred and a little bit of sympathy to these characters begins to appear. They obviously felt as though there was no hope for people in their circumstances and needed to get out. This is shown clearly when talking about their parents past lives. He remarks " Jody remembers the incident that led to her father's described as if it had been a cartoon misadventure, in which " silly Daddy had driven off a curve and landed on the roof of a house""(44). They are obviously horrible parents, and her father suffers from a bad case of alcholism, which did certainly not help things. It is these kind of parents that makes it seem as though parenting should have certain requirements and not be a given right.
This book reminds me heavily of Night in that it deals heavily with people that have been oppressed and abused, and how they deal with it. The author remarks " Was she responsible for for having failed to prevent the murders?"(47) I can imagine this would wrack Jody with guilt for being almost an accomplice to her brother's horrible deeds, and not doing as much as she could possibly do to prevent it. The author remarks that Jody even had Elie Wiesel in her library at home, which helps show how she wants to know how other people have dealt with her experiences. It also talks about how Billy was abused in both areas of life, when he quit school and started to work for this father. He remarks " Working for his father, Billy endured relentless verbal assualts"(53). Instead of being safe in the school, Billy now could be verbally tormented in every area of his life, which surely contributed to his state of mind, and his pathological need to remove his father from his life.

The After Effects of the War

Lincoln as a president after the war was probably exhausted. He had led his country through war against their fellow countrymen and brought them out the other side. This event probably defined the rest of his life as he struggled with it. Guezlo writes, "toward the larger, more haunting, question of the war's meaning"(415). He is wise enough to realize the war is not close to being over. The bottom half of the country hates his guts, and he has to somehow convince them to reunite. Much like World War 2, Lincoln knew he had to lay the blame on everybody, so as not to cause resentment. Guezlo writes "The north and South were to be weighed and judged in spite of the seeming moral superiority of slavery's opponents"(418). He continue to make the right decision and follow his own guidance, as the evils of the world try and drag him down to their level. This perserverance of true ideals is why he is celebrated today.
This transformation was speeded up by his untimely death. After he got assasinated by John Wilkes Booth he quickly aquired the sympathy of the entire country. He was eulogized as " one of the most faultless examples of true manhood even prominently exhibited to the world"(440). This beautiful speech speaks wonders of how the country had grown to love and honor the president who had led the country to war. They realize that he did make the right decisions, and so they recognized it. Insterestingly, " And almost irresitably, he was compared to Jesus Christ"(440). This claim is truly remarkable, and made even more so by the fact we were a very Christian nation. They had elevated him to the highest statues they could think of, as they thought he truly belonged on the highest pedestal out there.