The Killing Circle: Different Perspectives of People’s Feelings

Everyday around the world many terrible, and tragic crimes take place were not everyone is aware of every single crime. Whether it is a robbery, a kidnapping, a murder or even a case of missing books to someone out there it matters, but to others it may not. In the novel, The Killing Circle the author Andrew Pyper shows that when something bad happens it tends to only affect an individual if that person were in that situation, or has a loved one in that current situation compared to society were people would just not care at all.

An example this situation in real life would be let’s say a fisher men’s daughter was murdered and as a father he is devastated. Now to that fisher man’s family this is a tragic moment in their lives, knowing that a person that they truly, deeply cared about is now gone forever. Now to society more than half of them may not be aware of this event, or be aware and just not care because those people it may not affect them personally as it would to the fisher men’s family.

This novel has a similar event were random murders take place, and the main antagonist Patrick Rush does not care about what is happening in his city and he does not care of what happened to those people that died, until his one and only son is kidnapped by the mysterious Sandman. Andrew Pyper shows that what a person feels when losing someone close to them is completely different for what society or someone not as close may go through and develops this theme by using Patrick Rush’s situation as an example.

To begin, everyone knows when anything big or small happens one way to find out would be probably watching or reading the news. Although the news is a good for giving people information on recent events, it is also something that hurts the hearts of the families of which the news could be about. Andrew Pyper shows that when something happens to someone close to you it is very painful, but to someone in the media it is something that person can exploit and use to their benefit.

He uses imagery to make the readers imagine a scenario that which the readers can feel how both a family member may feel and someone in society. For example, “You can Imagine. A father loses his son at the movies, the boy snatched away in the time it takes to buy hot dogs and onion rings– it’s a summer weekend news editor’s dream come true. ” (Pyper, 265) This example shows the father that lost his son would be devastated, worried, and angry that it happened, but this story for the news editor is something he could potentially use as the next top story in his article.

Taking it a step further it even shows that when people in the society listen to this news most may not even care and that little amount that does care will slowly start to not care as well, but the family that lost their son will never stop caring until he would return safely home. Relating this to daily life there are many examples of when news reporters take advantage of the worst situations just to get a better rating for their show. For example, channel 6 news was trying to get out some information on what happened to this teen who was shot out of her mother.

For a parent that just lost their daughter the last thing the parents would want at that time would be a reporter annoying them that is why that teens mother got angry and replied “ ‘OK, that’s good’ when asked for a reaction to her daughter’s shooting, but then suddenly hurled a rock at ABC6 photographer Marc Jackson” (Zimmerman, Para 3). This shows that even at a situation like this the reports do anything it takes to get some good news for their viewers, even if it hurts the hearts of the poor families.

Furthermore, near the end of the book as stated Patrick Rush’s son goes missing, and in such cases many people in this common society would simply give up on either searching for him or already think his son would be dead. In this situation the readers can imagine what Patrick is going through, in his state of mind he allows the reading to sense how he is feeling by saying “There’s the shots of local volunteers searching for clues, for body parts.

And there’s the father, his skin speckled and spongy as oatmeal, robotically pleading for his boy’s safe return” (Pyper, 265). This shows that the volunteers in the society are already searching for clues, and Andrew Pyper specifies that the volunteers are searching for body parts meaning that the volunteers must already be assuming Patrick’s son to be dead. Patrick on the other hand is feeling depressed, as if he cannot move anymore without him, as if his skin feeling like it is going to melt, begging for his son to return safe.

The readers can feel that Patrick is in pain, and clearly the volunteers helping to find the boy are not, thus proving that a what a family goes through is completely different from what others in this common society would go through. This argument could be related to a recent tragedy that happened in Toronto where a man named Tim Bosma was fallen victim to a group of evil people that murdered him over a few vehicles.

A few vehicles were recovered by the police, and a statement was given by an owner of one of the vehicles. He said “‘it’s just a bike,’ MacDougall said. ‘It’s nothing compared to what the Bosmas are going through now. They’ll never get Tim back. ‘This is sad, really sad’” (Casey, Para 6). Mr. MacDougall knows that what the Bosmas are going through is very difficult, and many people in Toronto probably did not even know of this incident that occurred, and do not feel what the Bosma family is going through.

Thus, this recent event helps to prove that only families can understand how it feels when you lose someone because they are so close to him, compared again to society where people just do not have that same personal connection. Finally, Patrick shows that people that only people that are close to you actually if the pain and sorrow when you are gone. Although he realizes this after his son is kidnapped, he still shows that he now understands how it feels to lose someone, and why others aside from him may not. Patrick says “Harm tends to come from when you lose ones you know the best” (Pyper, 267).

Here Andrew Pyper uses what Patrick said to show that only when a person loses someone close to them is when that person would experience any type of emotional feelings; compared to someone that might not know that person to well and may not go through the same type of feelings that someone that was close to that person goes through. Looking outside the book, everyone in the world is scared of losing someone that is close to them; by looking online you can find millions of quotes or just ordinary people that have shared this feeling.

For example, an unknown person said “I’m always scared of losing someone close to me… and fed up of being told ‘it’ll be fine’” (Losing Someone from Death Quotes, 4). The quote said by an anonymous source is basically saying that losing someone close to you can be really scary or even depressing just to think about, and people around you may not feel the same as you do. This is just one opinion of the billions of people in the world, and Andrew Pyper being one is trying his hardest to prove that only if a person that loses someone close to them goes through completely different feelings than a person not as close goes through.

In conclusion, Andrew Pyper using this novel to help prove that the emotions somebody shares when losing someone dear to them is completely different for someone that is not close to that person. By using Patrick Rush’s situation as a main example he helped to prove this thesis, and by comparing it to outside sources in this essay the readers now are totally clear on his message. Anyone would be terrified to even think about losing someone like their brother, sister, mother or father, or even their closest friend.

What the author wanted to show is that only people close to that person that might have died or gone missing feel the pain and others do not. The real life examples of Tim Bosma, the mother that lost her daughter, and many people around the world helped to prove this thesis, and the main message Andrew was trying to get across. Everyone who was read his books will understand Andrew Pyper’s message, but only when the readers were to go through the same ideal or situation is when they will truly realise the importance of how feelings are different for every individual.