“Gorilla Girl” by Bonnie Jo Campbell tells the twisted coming-of-age story of a budding sociopath in southern Michigan. The narrator, whose name is not revealed in the text, takes the reader through some of the most important events of her adolescence, describing actions and emotions that would make any “nice” girl recoil in disgust. However, this disgust is vital to the story, as the narrator would undoubtedly feel the same level of contempt if she were to behave in a more orthodox manner. This is the story of a girl desperately trying to shed her skin. She is full of pure animal energy, lashing out violently at others - and sometimes herself, if no one else is available - in an attempt to quell her frenetic impulses. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The text is teeming with language with a negative connotation to elicit a primal instinctive reaction in the reader. The author chose words so incredibly loaded that if you read only the adjectives, it would create sensations almost as powerful as reading the story as a whole. The narrator describes herself as a “poisonous mixture” inside her mother in the first paragraph (15). This first description sets the tone for the story, but barely begins to scratch the surface. From birth, the narrator feels mad, angry, and uncomfortable in her body. As a baby, she screamed constantly and refused the soft comfort of blankets and toys. In her early childhood, she was violent towards her siblings, and once she was old enough to attend school, she spread that violence to her classmates as well. He not only killed the insects, but ate them, relishing their misfortune. Its violence extends far beyond the normal realm of typical infantile selfishness or the slightly morbid but not unnatural passion children feel in playing God with the lives of insects; the narrator actually finds these outbursts therapeutic. After punching Tommy Pederson at school, she describes the lingering feelings of calm and clarity as a "glow," a word commonly used to describe the period directly after an orgasm, not an argument (17). Yet an orgasm is nothing more than a massive release, which is exactly what violence was for her. Likewise, he feels the same clarity squeezing rose thorns into his skin until it bleeds or stabbing himself with his house keys; we see this tendency towards self-harm recurring throughout the text. She also says, “If my parents had hit me, or even just spanked me, there would have been some relief,” and she immediately calmed down when Dr. Radcliffe slapped her in the face (19). In finding comfort in these violent actions, the narrator expresses her relief at having found a physical outlet for her internal anguish. His tendency to self-harm is based on a common root cause: He's trying to cleanse himself of emotions that are too frustrating or dense to deal with openly. Physical pain is something that is easier to deal with. Her propensity to hurt others and the way she feels when someone hurts her are not entirely uncommon, as seen in some sexual subcultures. When a wealthy CEO pays a woman or other man to beat and emasculate him, for example, he is seeking the same sense of clarity and liberation. Our narrator does not necessarily seek violence for sexual gratification, but the underlying motivation is similar. Over time, the narrator begins to seek any type of physical exhaustion as an outlet for her explosive energy. Initially it seems that.