The Boy Ain’t Right
Paul Serena needs some help. This has been
heard many times, echoing
throughout the halls of Lansing High School. Why? Well, Paul is
well-known
throughout
LHS for the many stories dealing with the topic of death he has
written.
These aren’t
typical stories dealing with death. They most frequently involve people
dying
spectacularly violent deaths. His most-well known stories are those
of the Tumah trilogy.
The trilogy is about Arnold Schwarzenegger, who goes about killing
people left and right,
with no provocation, other than he thinks that he doesn’t have a tumor,
while everyone
else seems to notice it. However, this is a poetry unit we’re on, so
I’ll be analyzing his
haiku.
Paul’s’ haiku are quite similar to his
stories, in that they
deal with things in a
humorous, albeit sick and twisted, method. The haiku are short and
sweet, about 38 in
number, following the haiku formula of 5-7-5 to the syllable. Paul
writes mostly about
things that are going on in his life, most specifically what annoys
him. For instance, in
“Sibling Conflict,” he bashes his sister’s head in with a brick. The
reason behind this is
that he hates his sisters, Rachel and Anne. He truly hates them, as
they tend to get
preferential treatment in his household. True, he tends to call his
sisters names which I
can’t put in an English paper, but he doesn’t see it that way.
That’s one of the few specific haiku. Almost
all of the rest
of the haiku are just
general rage, directed at no one in particular. Why somebody would
kill off as many
people as Paul does, even just in haiku, is a point of curiosity that
needs to be satisfied.
Well, the reason that Paul has such anger and
hatred being dealt
out in his writing
is due to the serious amount of, for lack of a better word, crap that
Paul has had dealt to
him throughout his life.
See, life has not been kind to Paul. People
tend to treat him
in an unkind manner
due to the fact that he’s a short little fella (his appearance has
earned him the nickname
of “Trollboy” in our little circle of friends) and he has a twsited
sense of humor. People
at LHS make fun of Paul, and he doesn’t have any way to fight back
except in his stories,
because he’s nothing but skin and bones. He’s also been treated
unkindly
by the female
contingent of Lansing, mainly because he’s not “hunky,” and also
because
he writes
things like the haiku. Of course, he’s treated badly because of the
haiku, and he writes
the haiku because he’s treated badly. It’s just a vicious circle.
Continuing with the theme of mistreatment by
humans with uteruses,
Paul has not
been successful in the matters of the heart. The first girl he cared
about dropped him for
another guy. This resulted in the poem, “Heart’s Black Rage.” This
poem was a way for
Paul to deal with the anger and rage he was experiencing at the time.
He wrote the poem,
and felt much better- especially since the poem dealt with Laura, the
girl who cast Paul
aside, dying in a slow, evilly cruel manner. The poem also resulted
in Paul having a long
talk with the principal, the girl and her parents, and the school
counselor.
So Paul deals with his problems by taking
people in school who
annoy him, and
ending their lives in one very violent, gruesome manner- in words.
Notable methods of
execution utilized by Mr. Serena include nukes, acid, having your heart
ripped out, fire,
and the Unabomber. Quite varied, eh?
For instance, Paul really does not like the
hillbilly/redneck
contingent at LHS, so
he wrote the haiku “Please Don’t Rape My Sheep.” No death occurs, but
the mental
image created by “Please use a rubber” is pretty strong (especially
if you know the joke
“What’s a redneck’s favorite excuse? ‘Really, I was just helping the
sheep over the
fence.’”). Paul has been harassed numerous times by this group (known
for their cries of
‘big dawg!’ as they greet each other in the hallways), because, as
he believes, he “can
read and doesn’t have to marry his sister.”
Secondly, Paul doesn’t get the “homie g-funk”
people that play
Tupac and wear
baggy jeans. He has difficulty understanding why they can relate to
the LBC and Snoopy
Dog Dog (did I get that right?) when they live in a small town in
Kansas.
His way of
dealing with that was to write “Homie,” complete with gangsta-speak-
i.e, “Dey’ll busta
cap ‘n yo’ ass.”
So, Paul Serena needs some help, obviously.
However, he has never
acted out in a
violent manner, except on paper. His haiku and stories are his way
of dealing with an
uncaring world without taking to a clock tower and thinning out the
weaker part of the
population with a deer rifle. And they’ve earned him a popular
following
(a small, but
rabid one) who eagerly read his stories. It helps a bit to ease the
pain of the crap he takes
and saves him from acting out in a physical matter- which saves him
a bit of physical
discomfort, as any time he tends to fight, he also tends to be beaten
black and blue.