Bystander

Throughout the novel, Griffin refers to his wooden box of “souvenirs,” items stolen from bullying targets and other people. Eric first learns of Griffin’s souvenir collection in Chapter 10; it contains “a weird assortment of random stuff, some kind of baseball pin, old coins, a pocketknife, a tooth, a couple of Keys, and mishmash of junk” (58). Eric doesn’t realize that Griffin stole these items, despite him joking about keeping his basketball “as a souvenir” (12) early on.

The souvenirs represent Griffin’s power over his past (and current) victims. He keeps them as reminders of dominance—bar his own tooth, knocked out by his drunk father. The tooth is a reminder of Griffin’s powerlessness and humiliation in his own home. The other souvenirs likely compensate for this powerlessness.

Griffin’s group uses animal metaphors to justify their bullying of weaker children. When Eric criticizes Griffin for his bullying of David Hallenback, he responds, “Kids like Hallenback are always going to get beat on. It’s the law of the jungle. Only the strong survive” (93). When Eric says they are in middle school, not a jungle, Griffin replies, “It’s still a jungle, the survival of the fittest” (93). Griffin mentions that he came up with his comparisons by watching nature shows.