“American Isolato: The Rise of the Serial Killer As Anti-Hero” (Close Reading 12/8)

http://www.believermag.com/exclusives/?read=excerpt_strand

Ginger Strand’s “American Isolato: The Rise of the Serial Killer As Anti-Hero” explores the American fascination with serial killers since the late 20th century, shortly after the initial scare from the discovery of such killers. Strand uses details, diction, and syntax to highlight the true nature of serial killers compared to the image of the public viewpoint.

Detail shines as a strong factor throughout the excerpt conveying the nature of murder battles with the interest of the public. As the person that started the craze with serial killers, Ted Bundy acts as the main focus of the article. But, the public’s reaction to Bundy also needs to be highlighted to show the killer compared to how the killer is viewed. So, Strand displays just how enamored the public is with Bundy through the inclusion of the detail that “Aspen locals printed T-shirts saying, ‘Ted Bundy is a one-night stand”. In focusing on products that would typically be made by fans, Bundy seems like another celebrity, as opposed to the murderer he is. The writers furthers the display of public and media obsession, adding “when [Bundy] announced his intention to defend himself at his Florida trial, 250 reporters from 5 continents applied to the courtroom”. This detail shows how far the obsession spread. It was no longer only an American focus, but instead, a world focus. Though media and the public are seen to take a large interest in Bundy, Strand quickly shuts down the image the public receives of “a bright lawyer-to-be with a promising future in politics”. In a paragraph of his discrepancies, the last thing mentioned before his arrest is that “he abducted, raped and killed a 12-year-old girl”. With this detail, the reader is forced to notice the juxtaposition of Bundy compared to his image. With each new detail, Strand focuses the reader’s attention and builds the public’s image of a successful man, only to break it with an aspect of his true self.

The use of diction adds to Bundy as a murderer as well as Bundy as a figure in the media. Strand refers to the obsession with Bundy from the media as well as the public as “Bundymania”. This makes the interest all the more ridiculous, and shows that Strand does not look kindly on the fascination that Bundy brings in. It also furthers Bundy as a celebrity with famous things like the Twilight craze being referred to as Twilight Mania. To further that Bundy is not the same person that the public think he is, the author mentions Bundy’s efforts to portray himself as a sophisticated person by getting “the goodies”. The use of “goodies” truly shows that the image Bundy was portraying was fake and only based on the clothes he wore and things he bought, not on his actions. Beyond the media and public, even the police were deceived by Bundy. Strand claims that Bundy became the “paradigmatic” for all serial killers. Police based their assumptions of serial killer patterns after Bundy, despite the fact that Bundy’s tendencies contradicted future patterns of serial killers. Everyone fed into “Bundymania”, but Strand denies the image bought by the public, media, and even the police by saying the false assumptions, created by Bundy, make serial killers “likeable”.  The term “likeable” creates the sense that serial killers seem less severe than they really are. The diction throughout the excerpt conveys the message that instead of fearing killers, people like them and are interested in them.

The syntax used by Strand furthers the juxtaposition of the image of Bundy compared to his true self. Throughout the piece, the author uses pauses between descriptions of Bundy by the public and what is portrayed as more accurate descriptions. In one section, the author describes Bundy as, “ handsome, personable, apparently middle class and with a penchant for victims who made good copy”. The separation with “and” from positive observations of Bundy to a quick mention of his victims forces the reader to recognize Bundy as a murderer. It also compares the relationship between the real Bundy and the one seen by the public. To add to how serial killers shaped America, Strand uses interrupting phrases to get the reader to focus just in time for an important point. She exercises this when she writes, “serial killers came to be admired, not only as outlaws-- we Americans love our outlaws-- but as icons of the nation’s newly unabashed materialism”. Strand wants the reader to focus on the more important message of how serial killers relate to the American society and culture. To get the focus, she changes the sentence structure to pull the attention of the readers in. Ginger Strand uses pauses and interruptions to focus the readers attention and show the differences in how Bundy is viewed and how Bundy actually acts.