[Spoilers TBI] The wolf of the West

I’m going to preface this by saying I’m only part way through Before They Are Hanged, so please keep spoilers out as much as possible.

West is a garbage man. West is shit. West is so shit and inspires so much hatred in me I spent time I should have used literally anywhere else to make this [meme.](https://reddit.app.link/LOvXFlrNJV)

West is a wolf in sheep’s clothing that’s convinced himself that he’s a sheep. West is a bastard of the highest order and I can’t even put in to words the pure loathing I feel for him. Of every character in the books so far I have never gone so instantly from general approval to violent hate so quickly. After reading Nobody’s Dog I had to put down the book for a day because the whole chapter made me feel sick. The visceral, gut hate I felt for this man really surprised me, and in working through they why I’ve decided to make a post here. Maybe typing this out will let me let go a little bit.

I’m going to make an assumption right now that everyone has played, or seen a play through of Doki Doki Literature Club. It’s free, you have no excuse, I’m going to spoil the act 1 twist, so be ready, because act one ends with a depressed girl killing herself in a way too real to life. It was a grim and realistic depiction of depression and it hit me all the harder because of how real it was. That same sick reality hit me when I realized that what I was reading was an incredibly accurate description of the cycle of abuse. A boy, abused by his father, escapes to the military and finds himself inflicting the same abuse on the people he once protected. Breaking the cycle is hard, and the circle of the world is somewhat light on anger management classes and therapists, but you don’t get to excuse violence that way. Heat of the moment doesn’t excuse that violence. Bad day doesn’t excuse that violence. Nothing does.

I don’t think I’m ever going to change my opinion on West, even if he goes through the most stunning redemption arc penned in history. The egg can’t be unbroken, and that trust can’t be regained so easily. We’ll see, but I doubt it.