Shooter

In his interview with Dr. Ewings, Cameron says that Len “started wearing dark clothes. And a dark hat” (46). He makes it clear that Len did this to be nonconformist, saying that he shunned “superficial things” like matching colors or dressing to impress other students (46). Black clothing is also associated with death, and symbolizes power or evil.

Cameron explains that people who go “dark” are shunning the “puffed-up way of living” (51). Based on Cameron’s descriptions, it is apparent that dark clothing and going dark are the attire and look of the outsider—the person who does not want to fit into mainstream culture.

Five years before Shooter was published, the Columbine High School Massacre took place. Myers may have been influenced by reporting at the time claiming that the shooters were part of a group, the Trench Coat Mafia. For example, The Washington Post reported:

“The shooters who turned Columbine High School into an unspeakable landscape of carnage yesterday were members of a small clique of outcasts who always wore black trench coats and spent their entire adolescence deep inside the morose subculture of Gothic fantasy, their fellow students said.” (The Washington Post. “Bullies and black trench coats: The Columbine shooting’s most dangerous myths.” 2019. Washingtonpost.com.)

Though the shooters were not part of this group, or even outcasts, this was the dominant narrative at the time of the tragedy.

Throughout the story, the characters repeatedly refer to both legal and illegal drug use. After a bullying incident in which he and Len were called “faggots and pussies,” (39) Cameron recalls a shaken and angry Len seeking refuge in pills: “He was really mad—not like in his head, but in his body. His shoulders were shaking and his hands were trembling. There was a kid in school who was taking some drug, I think it was Librium or Prozac, something. A lot of the kids were on something. That was what Len went back to school for” (39).

Len mentions his pill popping several times in his diary. Right after a bullying incident in which Brad called him a “worm” in the parking lot, Len writes: “What to do? What to do? Took prescription for magic pills to pharmacy in Oakdale” (191). He also mentions the antidepressant drug Trazodone: “Looked up uses of Traz on the Net. Takes three weeks to kick in but superior side effects will have me rising to any occasion” (182).

Len uses the pills as an escape when things get rough in his life. What’s not clear is whether the drugs somehow altered his mind and helped to create a homicidal sociopath. Myers suggests that drugs were one factor among several. Myers also implicates adults for not intervening.