First Blog

This topic is about Chris' anger management problem as a kid and adult as well. In the beginning he comes right out and says how he has a terrible anger management problem or at least memories on his anger problems as a child. He said that when Paula Whitson asked a different boy to the Sadie Hawkins Dance instead of him he went home and kicked a hole in a plasterboard wall. He also cracked a full-size mirror from top to bottom once. His dad left them all there as a reminder of what he’d done. Throughout this book he talks about how he was considered a "bawlbaby" because he would cry at nearly or actually everything. "Until about the age of twelve, the best use i found for my temper to keep me from being a bawlbaby"(Crutcher 19). He explained how he cried when anyone hit him. "I cried when i was down to my last-second-cookie; when it was my brother John's turn to ride with my dad or granddad in the gas truck; when my mother gave the second half of my Popsicle to someone else(that fell in to the second-cookie category); when the New York Yankees lost a World Series game; anytime i had to share and anytime someone wouldn't share with me. Any event that could light up my temper could also reduce me to tears"(Crutcher 19 and 20). He even goes into detail of what he looked like when he did this. He says: "The moment i considered myself either the cause or the focus of disappointment, my eyes would squint, my lips would spread wide over my buckteeth, and it was a race to my chin between tears and snot"(Crutcher 20). Whenever he did something wrong or got in trouble which apparently happened a lot he would just start crying and crying and crying. I would supposed that this got annoying and that he would get in even more trouble for it. As a matter of fact he states "Faced with that, my dad would simply grimace and shake his head, or if he was feeling particularly irritated, ask another of those famous questions to which he didn't want the correct answer: "Do you want me to give you something to cry about?" (No, Crutch, I do not want you to give me something to cry about. I already have something to cry about,thank you. Why don't you give your something to cry about to John or Candy?) My mother on the other hand, when she wasn't suckered in by my drama and despair, hated it. Her question was more taunting: "What are you going to do now, be a big bawlbaby?" That made it worse because the answer waa s yes, but the response had to be no" (Crutcher 20).