Matt Fowler, From The Killings, By Andre Dubus

Matt Fowler, from the Killings by Andre Dubus, was taught a powerful lesson. That message is one that was given to us from Mahatma Gandhi. He says, “an eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind.” All Matt Fowler wanted to achieve was vengeance for the murder of his youngest son, Frank Fowler. He learned that even though he had carried out revenge against his son’s killer, but in the end, he did not receive satisfaction. In the end, all Mr. Fowler had left was a heavy conscious and two less bullets than what he began with. When I was younger, my parents taught me that if someone pushes me, I should defend myself my pushing back twice as hard. What if the person that was bullying had been given the same lecture by their parents? Would this
Mr. Fowler mentioned to his friend, Willis, that “he was afraid he could not be alone with Strout for very long, smelling his smells, feel the presence of his flesh, hear his voice, and then shoot him.” (94). Matt could not think of Strout as a human being because he would not be able to go through with ending his life. Mr. Fowler needed to think of Richard Strout as some type of rabid animal that needed to be put down before he could hurt anybody else. This suggests to me that Matt is not a killer, he is just a man that wants to make sure that his boy’s killer sees justice. I infer that deep down, Matt Fowler, did not truly want to kill Richard
I can not bring myself to sympathize with this man for killing the man who took his son from him. I could understand being mad, but I do not understand how someone could believe that murder is the only logical solution of getting even. Matt did not even begin to question his actions until he is alone with Richard. I assume that Dubus added the passage stating that “Richard Strout shot Frank in front of the boys. They were sitting on the living room floor watching television, Frank sitting on the couch, and Mary Ann just returning from the kitchen with a tray of sandwiches. Strout came in the front door and shot Frank twice in the chest and one in the face with a 9 mm automatic. Then he looked at the boys and Mary Ann, and went home to wait for the police.” (93) was added for the reader to develop a deeper hatred for Richard Strout. While I agree that Richard Strout was an awful person, I do not believe that Matt Fowler should not have killed him because it only made his life so much worse. Matt was now not only living with hurt because of his son passing, but also the guilt of taking another man’s