by Christine G.

Created on: February 21, 2010   Last Updated: January 10, 2012

PETER HOUGHTON: THE MAKING OF A SHOOTER

Whenever we are confronted by the horror of a school massacre, angry, baffled questions surface.  How could this happen?  Why didn't anyone notice the ticking time bomb in their midst?  What was going through the shooter's mind while he was on his killing spree?  Jodi Picoult provides a substantial answer to these questions in her drawing of the character of Peter Houghton in the novel Nineteen Minutes.

When Detective Patrick Ducharme catches up with Peter in the middle of his killing spree, he sees a slightly-built 17-year-old with crooked glasses crouching beside a bank of lockers, shivering like a frightened child.  The detective does not realize that this is the shooter until the boy pulls out a gun and puts it against his own head.  Peter wants to kill himself, the person he hates the most - he says his victims are merely people who got in the way - but when three policemen point their guns at him and tell him to drop it, he does.

Some people seem to be born wearing a sign saying KICK ME.  Peter is one of those.  He does not understand why he is being bullied. He has no idea how to respond constructively to the situation.  From his first school day, he is a target for bigger, stronger, more successful people, including his older brother, who often intitiates the torment. 

Peter's efforts to ask for help make things worse, so he soon learns to hide.  His attempts to fit in backfire.  He internalizes the cruel messages hurled at him, even questioning his sexual orientation because he has heard the accusation once too often.  As his anger grows and grows, he finds solace in the predictability of HTML code, violent music, and "adult" games such as Grand Theft Auto, where the player runs down innocent people for points.  Ultimately, he designs his own video game, "Hide and Shriek", where his avatar storms down the halls of his high school, exterminating the jocks, the bullies, and the popular kids. 

He is fascinated by guns.  Hunting is a thrill.  He learns how to make pipe bombs from the Internet.  He manages to steal two pistols from a neighbour.  The morning he sets out to turn his fantasy into reality, he has four firearms with him, and enough ammunition to kill 200 people.

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