Character Analysis Of Johnnie's 'Capital Offenders'

The character I am choosing for my Reaction Paper is Johnnie. Johnnie is a Korean-American boy who is in the Capital Offenders Group A. His mother abandoned him at his grandparent’s house when he was three years old. He never understood why she left him, and that led to him hating his grandparents because of it. Johnnie was bullied and teased while growing up. He took all of his rages out on his grandparents, by beating them whenever he could. One instance if him taking rage out on them was when he was playing pool with some friends around his grandfather’s pool table and things got rowdy. His grandmother came to tell them that they should stop and Johnnie threw a pool ball at her head, stood on her oxygen tank until she began to gasp for air.

I was scared that if I told them what was happening at school, they wouldn’t have an answer for that, either’”. That quote is power because he felt like he had no one or anyone to talk to because he was afraid of the possible disappointment in answers. Which lead him to his resentment of his grandparents. It is interesting that when he shared his story, he mentions in the beginning that his grandparents did attempt to find his mother by using a Private Investigator, but she never came back or reached out. So maybe if he knew that they did try to find her once, then he would not have been so defensive and have so much hatred towards them. The second quote that is significant to the closing of Johnnie’s story are words from another Asian-American, Tran. Tran says on page 20 “You are the victim, Johnnie’”. The quote is impactful because it ended Johnnie’s story and it was something to just think and ponder about. Tran summarized Johnnie’s entire story and told him that he is the victim. It was strong and moving because it is true. He is a victim of the environment that he was brought up in which affected his ability to move on with his