Crash

A bully is frustrated by important people in his life, and at the same time he feels superior to others and therefore has the right to traumatize them for his own stress relief. Thus, he takes out his pain on others. Crash illustrates how anger and entitlement blend together in the life of Crash Coogan.

As a small child, Crash gets his nickname when he greets a cousin at the door by barreling into her, football style, and knocking her backward into the snow. Crash enjoys digging holes in the front yard, pouring the dirt onto his mom’s pansies, and peeling bark off their trees.

These behaviors might sound cute or silly, if a bit vicious, but as the story progresses, it becomes clear they’re Crash’s ways of protesting the emotional neglect he suffers under his parents’ roof. His parents are ambitious and hard working—his dad runs a firm, and his mom sells real estate—and he feels fortunate to get any attention from them at all. He wants to invite his father to attend his first game as a football player, but his dad, working at home, is busy: “I figured I better not press my luck. I backed on out” (60).

His mom, meanwhile, is too tired, when she gets home, to interact with her kids. Crash’s sister, Abby, goes so far as to pester her mother just to get her attention: “I have to be perky, Mom, 'cause you’re so tired all the time. I gotta make up for you” (43). While Abby goes to these lengths, Crash also wishes for more interaction with them. At home, though, he’s deferential and almost never complains. He’s afraid to protest against his parents and isn’t sure how to go about expressing his emotions. At home, he has no outlet.

At school, Crash is tall and strong for his age, and he’s an immediate success on the football team, where his aggression pays off. He’s inspired to work hard at sports in the hopes that his parents will attend and see him perform. They never show up and always beg off because they’re too busy.

Crash receives high fives from other students for his many touchdowns, and he begins to feel that he’s “awesome” and entitled to deferential treatment from others. Frustrated at home but popular at school, he takes out his anger on Penn Webb, whose only sin, aside from being geeky, is his desire to be friends with Crash. Uncomfortable with attention from a boy he doesn’t respect, and encouraged by Mike, his best friend, Crash rejects Penn with cruel taunts and torments. Because many other kids also feel awkward around Penn, Crash’s bullying of the boy gets compliments.

Crash’s senses of superiority and entitlement reach a fever pitch when he takes aim at Jane Forbes, a beautiful new student who catches his eye. At a school event, he barges up to her, announces that he’s wearing a men’s-size shirt, crows about his football achievements, and grabs her hand to pull her onto the dance floor. Jane resists successfully and berates him; when her friend Penn appears, Crash takes aim at him, threatening him and knocking him down. Though he’s punished by the school and his parents, Crash’s bullying receives positive feedback from other students. He becomes convinced that he’s invincible and can do what he wants at school.

Crash has no idea that the people he harms would make wonderful friends because he can’t see past his own selfish priorities. His frustrations at home combined with his sheer size and his popularity at school to turn him into an arrogant, violent tormentor. These circumstances prompt Crash into becoming a bully.