MovieChat Forums > This Boy's Life (1993) Discussion > Did anyone else feel sort of bad for Dwi...

Did anyone else feel sort of bad for Dwight at the end?

posted 11 years ago by mizkex
13 replies | jump to latest

I like how even though Dwight is a terrible person, he's not treated as evil in a Disney sense. We get to see why he's angry, frustrated and mean, because he has had no major life accomplishments and can't stand to see anyone happy in his perpetual misery. He's a well developed character and not an archetype. I felt bad for him when they left, (although happy that they finally got away from him and sad for Pearl) seems like he was sick the whole time. Is he a sociopath?

[–] Cobra1986 11 years ago

No, I can't say I felt sympathy for him. He was a bully, a fake, a control freak and a total loser. Dwight got what he deserved. Perhaps he was a sociopath...but that doesn't excuse him.

[–] mizkex 11 years ago

It most certainly does not excuse him, but I still think that he is somehow mentally impaired and the cause for his negative demeanor, not his choice.

[–] Ten-Inch-Toni 11 years ago

Don't be fooled. He made those choices. He had something good and he destroyed it. Jack and his mom would have left him long ago but she kept convincing herself and her son that "he didn't mean to be such a bastard" or whatever lie she told herself that kept here there. They should have taken Pearl with them.

It's entirely possible that I am missing the point of your message.

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ThoseLittleRabbits 10 years ago

ew why do people like you always excuse horrible behavior with mental illness? he's a monster. the end

i've got feelings too, ya know - inbetweeners

[–] deforest-1 11 years ago

Didn't feel sorry for anyone in this film except for the gay friend -- almost everyone else was just users or frauds of some kind or another.

[–] hockeyhrs 11 years ago

Virtually everyone is a fraud in the sense that we all go to great lengths to mask our fears & insecurities.

Some part of Dwight was his own doing, and some part is the fact that he's a product of his own upbringing/environment. We'll never know how much of him was which.

"We are all of us the beneficiaries and victims of the peculiar theatrical moments of our lives." -- George W. S. Trow

[–] does_england_exist 11 years ago

I felt bad for him, but only at the very end, and only because he was so CLUELESS as to why he was unhappy. Similar to when you were school and there were unpopular kids who could've (it seemed to you) so EASILY have done more to fit in. You feel badly for them, but ultimately (most of the time) we are all the clueless cause of our problems. As long as it wasn't in the cards for Dwight to change, there's nothing to do but leave.

[–] Ten-Inch-Toni 11 years ago

Just because Dwight was begging at the end and crying "what about me?" doesn't elicit one ounce of pity from me. If Jack's mother hadn't come in and whacked the bastard on the head with the bat, Jack wouldn't be here to tell his story. He deserves jail time. That's what he deserves.

It's entirely possible that I am missing the point of your message.

[–] nw_sea1 9 years ago

Dwight was worse than the majority of unpopular kids though, unless they're unpopular because they're mean, petty bullies like Dwight. A lot of them have trouble with social skills for one reason or another, or are just different , and honestly don't understand why they don't have friends or are picked on. Or they do understand, but to act like everyone else might cause them so much energy and be so difficult that it's not worth it.

Toby/Jack didn't dislike Dwight simply because he was awkward and said screwy things. If that was the only thing wrong with him, if he'd been a good stepdad to Toby, giving him discipline without abuse, Toby might have gotten used to him and come to like him.

[–] Ten-Inch-Toni 11 years ago

Not one bit. Not even in the slightest. They should have taken the little girl with them.

The bastard was bully a drunk, rapist. He put down everyone around himself by use of humiliation and verbal and physical abuse. He's a petty small little man. I was raised by such a man. I feel nothing for this ugly ape.

It's entirely possible that I am missing the point of your message.

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] samup7775 9 years ago

No. He was banging a blond and able to take out his frustrations on a step kid, that's living!! ...joking, no I couldn't hate the mother more though, taking the pipe in concrete while her son suffered.