Dwight was right!

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Yeah really! If that wasen't abuse i dont know what is!


She's a real carpenter's dream "Flat as a board and needs a screw"

Not to mention the first drive over with Dwight drinking in the car AS he was driving, that really set the tone of who Dwight was, someone who turned his charm on and off depending who it was he was with.

Choking him was the culmination of Tobias's disrespect. It certainly wasn't the mature thing to do. I think Dwight would have been ok had Tobias shown him even a inkling of respect.

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Damn, it is pretty damn low to come on here and defend a man who was so abusive that a book was written and film made about his hideous ways. I think you are just looking for some attention by starting up such an idiotic thread. If not, I am with the other poster who said I hope YOU never have any children, freak.

Toby didn't do anything "out of the norm" for a rebellious teenager, especially one who was without a father figure and was dragged from town to town by a single mother looking for love in the wrong place.

Did you consider that perhaps part of the reason for the bad behavior was Dwight himself? I think Toby did have a rebellious spirit. I also think he saw into Dwight's narcissistic behavior early on. Remember those early scenes where Toby is making fun of Dwight lighting a cigarette? A normal adult would not take it much to heart, laugh it off. Not Dwight the narcissist. He was very offended. His little bitty ego couldn't take a ten year old's joke. Dwight spent a considerable amount of time trying to destroy the boy's self esteem. He wanted Toby to be a failure....he was almost successful.

@bondjames,
Have you ever lived in an abusive situation? I'm asking because I HAVE. While I have put to rest many of my childhood pains, when I was living through it, it was pure hell. And, for me, the verbal abuse was worse than the hitting and choking, which I also endured. Being spoken to like you are an absolute piece of *beep* when you are a child in your own home, no less, makes you hate yourself and, for many people, it lasts their entire life. I love my father very much, although he still has a hard time acknowledging what his rage and abusive tendencies did to us as a child. I had to make the decision when I was about 20 that I wasn't going to let this effect my whole life. It had already dominated my childhood. So, I worked through it BY MYSELF. Any counselor will tell you that it is important for the person who put you through this to acknowledge it, but that often just isn't gonna happen. When I watched this movie, it brought so much of that back.

So, again, mu question for you is if you have even been through this? If you haven't, which I suspect, I can see where maybe you would think that Dwight wasn't all that bad. You may not know what it is to have one person dominate the lives of everyone in the home with their fists and harsh words.
And, as far as Tobias being a "nutbag," first he was a teenager. This may be a shock to you, but teenagers often act as "nutbags." I can't count the number of people I know how did stupid *beep* during those years of your life and then turn out to be excellent adults. Not only was Tobias dealing with just the regular adjustment of these years, but he was doing so with dominating abuser hanging over his head and telling him how awful he was. He was seeing how his mother was being treated and he himself was definitely the least important of all the children in the home.
Join the cussing good times at http://mommalittle.com

Yes I agree that Toby when he first moved to Concrete to live with Dwight needed discipline because of his suspension from school and stealing and disrespecting Carolyns roomate Marion and other things that his Mom couldn't control him. So it was Dwights job turn him around in many ways even if it was with strict discipline. However Dwight was wrong in many ways. Even though he got Toby that Paper Route it was Tobys money that he worked and toiled with and it was for Toby to keep. Most paper boys keep their own money when they earn it and Dwight didn't even give him a small allowance from it.

All Toby wanted was sneakers for gym class which happened to be a constructive school expense for physical education and no Dwight wouldn't let him have those sneakers but why? Was it because of hogging the boxed candy and other things and why at that time did his Mom not want to help and say to him "I will not referree yet two years later she finally defends him after he beats him up over an almost empty mustard jar. I hope he got to keep the money he made at the A & P at least. Also when Toby was finally leaving with Caroline how come Dwight got away with that 2 grand of Tobys paper route money scott free. He should have gone to jail for that for stealing and that wasn't right. Yes Toby needed discipline at first but later on when Toby changed Dwight should not have been over abusive.

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i disagree completly. toby/jack was NOT at ALL a bad kid. yes he did some bad things, but its so completly obvious that he was a good kid.
if you recall earlyer in the movie he even says something along the lines of "i dont no why i do these things, i dont want to do them" he wants to be a better person, but has so much anger becasue of the situation he is in. his father and brother whom he greatly loved dont even call to say hello...ever. he lives with his mother and they are often moving around, so everytime he begins to get adjusted they leave. and to top it all off, his mother has abusive boyfriends and what not. its enough to mess anybody up.

and then he met dwight. dwight was pissed off simpley because he was insacure about himself. he viewed toby (or jack) as a threat. someone that was better then him. so he beat the sh*t out of him.

yes toby stole his car, which was wroung, but he only did it because it was in his view, the only form of revenge he could get. if he tried to defend himself in anyway against dwight, hed be slapped or punished in someother way. thats alot of anger to be bottleing up for someone who already had alot to deal with. and it wasnt as if his mother was stepping in to help.

dwight wasnt right, dwight was absoultly insane.

Dwight wasn't right! Physical and/or verbal abuse is never a way to deal with a child. In my Kirk Cameron posts, I've mentioned this girl named Mari who was abused by both her parents and her brother. She ended up suicidal, depressed and decidely psychotic.

Just look what happened to Judith Barsi (1978- 1988), dead at the hands of her own father, and he was just as cruel and rotten as Dwight.

Pretty sad stuff.

// Beating and terrorizing a child is NEVER acceptable behavior no matter what the reason.//

hisown, I entirely agree with you.
Tobias was a KID. He was cocky at times and not very respectful to Dwight. But then again, Dwight did not win respect from anybody. He was a bully, like you say. He did not treat Tobias mother well, either and Tobias was feeling trapped and without a future within that family and town.
All in all, Tobis summned it up pretty well when he told Dwight that no matter what he did, Dwight was never going to accept him, simply because Dwight resented Tobias's mere existence.

I think Dwight is in the wrong but he was old fashioned and back in the 50s, especially from a step father, it was common to get beatings. So Toby's experience was common.

People have pointed to Dwight's keeping the money to say that his intent was not to discipline and that he was abusive. Being abusive is separate from stealing or keeping the kid's money. It's also conceivable that Dwight wanted to discipline and keep the kid's money simultaneously.

I would say that the beating could have been a lot worse.(not saying beating is right) Until we get towards the end and especially the last scene where toby gets choked, I didn't think that the kid really had it that bad. The last scene, I agree was abusive.

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