Hey, guys! So, here's everything I found from reading Elliot's manifesto. As I stated in my previous post, what I found to be the most striking difference between Randy and Elliot is the fact that, while Randy desired to be seen and understood, Elliot very much wanted to leave some kind of lasting impression. This paper expands on this idea through pointing out the various topics he covered, in addition to how he spoke and wrote.

Disclaimer: By no means do I know Elliot, or know what went through his head. I just wanted to input my own two cents on the matter.

Note: Tagged with NSFW for sexual content discussed by Elliot in his manifesto.

Introduction

The previous linguistic profile essay discussed at length the unusual diction and sentence structure that Randy Stair employed in their various pieces of media that they posted online prior to their crime in June of 2017; they tended to be highly specific to the point of redundancy when they described how they wanted to harm others, and conceivably, this may have also been inspired, in part by, the writings of the late Eric Harris, one of the perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. Not to mention, Randy had a long history of derivative content on their YouTube channel, Pioneers Productions. And their multimedia series that they created, Embers Ghost Squad (EGS), was predicated on the Butch Hartman Nickelodeon television cartoon, Danny Phantom; particularly, on the siren villainess by the name of Ember McLain.

The overall underlying reasons for these irregularities mentioned above are the result of the following – Randy felt misunderstood and lacked a sense of identity as an individual. Furthermore, they refused to take responsibility for their actions, and made a notable effort to do so via their mentioning of Eric Harris as having given them the inspiration for their crime, and the idea that “fate” and “destiny” had a hand in influencing their decision.

This new paper similarly covers these topics in relation to Elliot Oliver Robertson Rodger, the perpetrator of the 2014 mass shooting at Isla Vista that tragically took the lives of six people. In the months leading to this incident, he posted a series of videos to his YouTube channel in which he discussed his frustration about his lack of a romantic relationship, and moments before his crime, he emailed to friends and family alike a detailed manifesto that was later released to the public. And more recently, authorities released his personal diary that he kept from 2010 until 2014, as well as more videos that were initially unreleased. As stated before, by no means does this paper provide a concrete explanation for Elliot’s motivations behind his crime; rather, the purpose of this discussion is to simply provide conjecture and a rough framework to help prevent future tragedies similar to this one.

Background

Early Life & Immigration to the U.S.

Elliot Oliver Robertson Rodger was born on July 24th, 1991, in London, England, to parents Peter and Chin. As he mentioned, his father was a photographer-turned-filmmaker while his mother was an on-set nurse who once dated George Lucas.

Elliot spent the first four years of his life in England, in the county of Sussex, and in a house referred to as “The Old Rectory.” For school, he attended Dorsett House, a private all-boys school. His experiences here, as he recalled, were quiet but pleasant, having made two friends. He also once went on a field trip to a nearby park that he found himself lost in at one point before finally finding his class with the help of a stranger he contacted.

His Christmastimes during this period were also pleasant, comprised of him having fun with his grandmothers, Jinx and Ah Mah. Moreover, in addition to his first vacation in France, he made other trips to his mother’s home country of Malaysia, as well as to Spain and Greece. It was during this trip to Greece that his grandfather, George, passed away, and it would be shortly after this when Peter reached the decision to move his family to the U.S.

Life in the U.S.

It was at five years old when Elliot and his family moved to the United States; specifically, the Rodgers immigrated to California so that Peter could find better opportunities as a filmmaker. For kindergarten, Elliot initially enrolled in Pinecrest Elementary school, where the staff had him stay in class during recess to complete schoolwork that he missed out on. Displeased with this, he later moved to another school – Farm School (named after the farm attached to it) – where he had a much better experience. He would later go on to reenroll at Pinecrest for middle school.

Elliot recalled his time at Farm School overall as perhaps one of the happiest times of his life. One notable event during this time was when he made his first friend since moving to the U.S. – a girl named [REDACTED]¹. The two of them regularly played together on campus, to the point that even their respective families became close friends. As he recalled, [REDACTED]¹ would be the only female friend he ever had. All in all, he summarized his time at Farm School best in the following excerpt:

My Kindergarten year at Farm School was filled with exciting, new experiences, all healthy for a growing boy. I had friends, I had playdates, I socialized with the other boys at school, despite getting into lots of conflicts with [REDACTED]¹. . . After a bright and joyous school year, it was time to graduate. I was swelled with pride as I wore my graduation cap at the ceremony . . . Life was good. (Rodger, 2014, pg. 6)

This discussion and reminiscence of childhood would be a recurring theme throughout Elliot’s manifesto and various other pieces of media that he posted prior to his crime.

Divorce

Shortly after Elliot’s seventh birthday, Peter and Chin divorced, an event that had a devastating effect on him. In the first mention of divorce on page nine of the manifesto, he noted that his mother assured him that the chances of divorce were slim to none, and yet, the divorce nevertheless happened. As Elliot wrote of the event,

Very shortly after my seventh birthday, the news came. I believe it was my mother who told me that she and my father were getting a divorce; my mother, who only a few months before told me that such a thing will never happen. I was absolutely shocked, outraged, and above all, overwhelmed. This was a huge life-changing event . . . My life would change forever after this. The family I grew up with has split in half, and from then on I would grow up in two different households. I remember crying. All the happy times I spent with my mother and father as a family were gone, only to remain in memory. It was a very sad day. (Rodger, 2014, pg. 10)

Elliot proceeded to arguably downplay this event in his life in page eleven of his manifesto, mentioning how the only difference in his life by this point was that his father lived in one house while his mother lived in another. On the other hand, however, he conceded that spending time in his father’s house over the weekend had a certain bleakness to it resultant of his mother’s absence, but he soon adjusted to this. Peter would later move to another home in Old Topanga Canyon (Rodger, 2014, pg. 10).

Introduction to Stepmother

After divorcing from Chin, Peter met another woman by the name of Soumaya Akaaboune, an actress from Morocco. For the rest of Elliot’s life, he would find himself constantly at odds with her, especially after she married Peter and gave birth to her son, Jazz, who would be Elliot’s half-brother. Perhaps the most significant aspect of his relationship with his stepmother has to do with the first time he met her. As he wrote in his manifesto on the matter:

Soon enough, though, I realized that Soumaya was, in fact, his ‘girlfriend’, and they were together just like how my father and mother were together. It was the first time I learned the concept of a ‘girlfriend’, and it was hard to grasp . . . Father finding a new girlfriend in such a short amount of time baffled me. I was completely taken aback. Because of my father’s acquisition of a new girlfriend, my little mind got the impression that my father was a man that women found attractive, as he was able to find a new girlfriend in such a short period of time from divorcing my mother. I subconsciously held him in higher regard because of this. (Rodger, 2014, pg. 11).

The last sentence wherein he held his father in higher regard for simply acquiring a girlfriend shortly after his divorce from Chin became a driving force for him for the rest of his life, permanently shaping his hopes and dreams.

Adolescence & Later Years

Elliot’s childhood is best summed up as one of excess, and a fixation on associating with those who are higher on the social status ladder. This continued well into his adolescence and later years as he transitioned into middle school, high school, and college.

As stated earlier, he reenrolled at Pinecrest for middle school. Initially, his experience here was more pleasant than he anticipated; he socialized with many of his female classmates, and at one point, danced with a girl during a school dance (Rodger, 2014, pg. 29). However, things eventually turned south for him as socializing became more difficult, beginning a period of bullying he faced in his later school years, resultant of behavior he exhibited to people just to garner their attention and alleviate his boredom and loneliness (Rodger, 2014, pg. 41). As he wrote in his manifesto on his seventh-grade year at Pinecrest:

I became known as the ‘weird kid’ at Pinecrest, and people started to make fun of me, but I didn’t care. I had my online games to distract me from the harsh realities of life that I was too scared to face. The only time I did care was when a group of popular Seventh Grade girls started teasing me, which hurt a lot. One of these girls was [REDACTED]¹, a pretty blonde girl who was [REDACTED]¹ younger sister. She must have thought I was an ultimate loser. (Rodger, 2014, pg. 41)

While this teasing was comparatively lighter, as opposed to what he later experienced in high school, this nevertheless left an impression on him for years to come.

High school and college arguably saw the peak of bullying that Elliot faced in his school years. For high school, he initially attended Crespi Carmelite, an all-boys Catholic school. On the topic of his very first week here, he wrote, “Some horrible Twelfth Graders saw me as a target because I looked like a ten year old and I was physically weak. They threw food at me during lunchtime and after school. It enraged me, but I was too scared to do anything about it” (Rodger, 2014, pg. 45).

After several more instances of this, Elliot changed schools and enrolled at Taft High School instead, only to face the same amount of bullying, with him writing, “Some boys randomly pushed me against the lockers as they walked past me in the hall. One boy who was tall and had blonde hair called me a ‘loser’, right in front of his girlfriends” (Rodger, 2014, pg. 48). Eventually, Elliot’s parents came to the decision to pull him out of Taft high school, effectively on-campus schooling altogether. As an alternative, he attended Independence High School, a continuation school of a hundred students that required him to only spend three or four hours a day. Whilst in attendance, he absorbed himself in the online game, “World of Warcraft”, playing the game for hours upon hours on end. Nevertheless, by March of 2008-2009, he graduated.

Subsequently, he attended Pierce College, where he found the campus and his fellow classmates to be much more pleasant compared to his previous years in middle school and high school. However, as time passed by, he found himself heavily disheartened at the sight of the various couples, considering his fixation on acquiring a girlfriend. It was by this point that he dropped his class there, much to the outrage of his mother.

At his mother’s insistence, Elliot began a search for a job, which he eventually found when a friend of his father employed him to help him work on a house he was building; it was this particular job wherein he was the least hesitant to perform, largely due to him viewing it more-so as lending help to a family friend. Later on, after acquiring his driver’s license, he enrolled at Moorpark College for summer classes, and much like his time at Pierce College, he barely found himself able to be present on campus out of his perpetual jealousy of the various couples there. Midway through his attendance at Moorpark, he dropped out and worked at an office connected to an airport as a janitor for only a day before quitting that as well (Rodger, 2014, pg. 70). Knowing that his mother would be outraged upon learning of these events, Elliot then reenrolled at Moorpark for a few more classes before finally dropping out.

Upon learning of this sudden decision on Elliot’s part, he and his family met at a Japanese restaurant, where they reached the decision that Elliot would find better social prospects once he moved to Santa Barbara, to live there by himself in an apartment paid for by his mother. His father would give him a $500 monthly allowance, and he would enroll in classes at Santa Barbara community college (Rodger, 2014, pg. 77). Elliot would go on to live in Santa Barbara for the remainder of his life, finding himself in frequent conflicts with his various roommates over the years prior to his crime and subsequent suicide.

Only further conflict and loss marked the final years of Elliot’s life. Firstly, his best friend, [REDACTED]¹, fed up with his ramblings about not having a girlfriend, came to the decision to end their fourteen-year-long friendship (Rodger, 2014, pg. 105). his stepmother, Soumaya, reached the same decision and emailed him about it (Rodger, 2014, pg. 62). Moreover, a separate incident in July of 2013 saw him attending a party in a drunken state as part of a last-ditch effort to acquire a girlfriend; the end of this incident saw him beaten and bruised after two fights – one with a group of young men and women alike, whom he attempted to push off a balcony in a bout of jealous, drunken rage, and another one while he limped on his way home after he broke his leg from falling off said balcony (Rodger, 2014, pg. 122). Once he arrived home, he discovered that he additionally lost a golden necklace that he deeply valued, as his grandmother gave it to him years prior. It was at this point – in addition to further failures to acquire wealth via the lottery – where he came to the tragic conclusion to commit his crime and subsequent suicide.

Findings

Having provided an overview into Elliot’s life, there is now the matter of discussing his linguistic irregularities, from his verbose manner of speaking and writing, to the sorts of topics he frequently covered in his manifesto, personal diary entries, internet posts, and videos that he posted prior to his death and suicide.

Analysis of the Manifesto

Status

Elliot’s overall character centered around status; he made this very clear through the manner in which he spoke, his choice of people whom he associated with, and the recurring topic about his family and personal activities. On the very first page, he wrote of his first vacation to France, which took place a couple days after his birth; not long after this, he made two others to Greece and Spain, and it is by this point that he proudly described himself as a “world traveler” (Rodger, 2014, pg. 3). He made no mention of the events preceding this, or the nature of his parents’ marriage during this time, save for the likeliness of their happiness about his birth. What appears clear here is that he perceived the activity of traveling to many different countries as something of a starting point for establishing status for himself. And while indeed impressive in and of itself, it becomes clear from the rest of the manifesto that this aspect of his life is part of something bigger – a certain character that he wanted to convey to his readers.

Another way in which Elliot wanted to convey this air of sophistication in himself has to do with the way he described those he knew. One example of this was at a birthday party for a friend of his by the name of [REDACTED]¹ circa 2010-2011; he noticed one girl sitting at his table, and as he recalled, “One of them was pretty, I believe she was the daughter of [REDACTED]¹, a renowned film editor; she had very sexy eyes, and she was tall… I always had a thing for tall girls, and this one was almost taller than me” (Rodger, 2014, pg. 80). Here, the first thing he noted about the girl other than physical attractiveness was the fact of her (possibly) being the daughter of [REDACTED]¹. Yes, while any normal person may note similar aspects about whom they know, this is something that is a recurring theme. In another instance wherein he introduced his step-grandparents, Elliot wrote,

Soumaya’s mother, Khadija, has a small but elegant house, and her father, Abdesalem, has a very large, almost castle-like house that is famous for being a location where a scene from James Bond: The Living Daylights was shot. This fascinated me, as I was a huge James Bond fan at the time (Rodger, 2014, pg. 14).

Much like his earlier descriptions of his vacations to France, Spain, and Greece, this mentioning of his step-grandparents’ respective homes in and of itself is perfectly innocuous; just about anyone would mention this fact in casual conversation. And yet, it is imperative to keep in mind that these instances are part of a longer pattern of behavior wherein he defined people either by whom they knew or what house they lived in; here, he never mentioned the quality of his relationship with his step-grandparents; whether it might have been a positive one or a negative one. Moreover, there is his description of his first friend that he made in the U.S., [REDACTED]¹; aside from noting that she was his first and only female friend, the first thing that he mentioned about her is the fact that she is the daughter of famous British musician, [REDACTED]¹ (Rodger, 2014, pg. 5), thus further indicating his fixation on status.

Perhaps cementing this argument is when he first ostensibly “realized” how social hierarchies work towards the end of his fourth-grade year, when he noticed the so-called “cool kids”. While Elliot never provided a specific definition of the term, “cool”, he instead wrote, “They were cool, they were popular, and they always seemed like they were having a good time” (Rodger, 2014, pg. 17). Elliot’s definition of the term, “cool”, comprised of two things – the state of being popular, and having an overall visible sense of satisfaction. Gathering from this, it becomes all too clear that he equated a satisfactory life with one in which a person is widely known by many. Now, this begs the question – how does one become widely known by many? his answer to this question laid entirely in the material – what clothes to wear, how hair should be styled or, as was noted earlier, whom one knew or where they lived.

His first attempt to look “cool” saw him bleaching his hair (i.e., dyeing it blond). In his first visit to a local hair salon, only the top of his hair was bleached. And while this initially outraged him, the next day saw him in school garnering the attention and “popularity” that he craved (Rodger, 2014, pg. 17). The second time saw his retirement from Pokémon, which he greatly enjoyed in his early years of elementary school. However, what prompted him to quit, as he noted in his manifesto, were his many other classmates associating it with the “nerd” crowd, which he very much wanted to avoid being associated with (Rodger, 2014, pg. 18). As an alternative to this, he took up skateboarding, as well as “hacky-sacking”, which consists of keeping a small sack filled with beans (or other materials) in the air for as long as possible through solely kicking it (Rodger, 2014, 22).

However, it must be conceded that these are juvenile, and do not attest to the entirety of Elliot’s life and motivations. On the other hand, it cannot be emphasized enough that they are part of a long line of consistently conformative behaviors, fueled by the distance established by his father via his film career and, ostensibly, his mother, who raised him under a coddling lifestyle to the detriment of his social skills, among a plethora of other factors. An example from Elliot’s later years can be found in his car choice, which he mentioned toward the end of his manifesto; specifically, his mother, Chin, bought him a BMW coupe after much complaining to her about his other car (Rodger, 2014, pg. 128), and in another instance, his family once bought him a pair of Gucci sunglasses, along with a Georgio Armani shirt (Rodger, 2014, pg. 99). Both of these things in addition to his descriptions of those he knew point to someone fixated on status above everything else. His overall opinion is best summed up in one section toward the end of the manifesto, when he wrote:

I wished there was something I could talk to my relatives about that would make them proud, but there was nothing interesting or impressive about my life to talk about. I wished that I could show my grandma that I was thriving in Santa Barbara; that I had a girlfriend and I was enjoying a full and healthy life. But no, that is something I was never able to do. I felt so ashamed of myself. (Rodger, 2014, pg. 96).

In essence, Elliot deeply held the poorly conceived notion that having a girlfriend would give him the approval from his father (as well as his family, ultimately) that he desperately craved in the midst of the perpetual conflict between Peter and Chin.

Lack of Sexual Maturity

It is clear throughout his manifesto that Elliot was unprepared for puberty, and for the various sexual experiences he endured over the course of his life. Granted, lack of sexual preparedness is not uncommon, but for Elliot, he was arguably less-so than average; case in point, the first time he ever viewed pornography. This happened when he was thirteen years old; it was during one of his solitary visits to Planet Cyber², and he noticed someone nearby watching pornography on their computer. As he wrote in his manifesto on the experience,

The video showed him stick his penis inside a girl’s vagina. I didn’t know anything about sex at the time. I barely even knew what sex was. I was slowly starting to develop sexual feelings for hot girls, but I didn’t know what to do with them. To see this video really traumatized me . . . All of these feelings mixed together took a great toll on me. I walked home and cried by myself for a bit. I felt too guilty about what I saw to talk to my parents about it. I was quite shaken for a few days. (Rodger, 2014, pg. 38)

From this excerpt, the obvious conclusion is that Elliot had no clue as to how to handle these feelings, and that these went undiscussed in detail with his family. And bearing in mind the divorce between his parents, this left him with no one to be honest with about puberty and sexual maturity, leaving him feeling alone and at the mercy of his otherwise uncontrollable, entirely foreign desires. Furthermore, there was the second time he viewed pornography, and the first time that he masturbated. In the former, this happened during his trip to Morocco shortly before attending high school; it was with a friend of his, and he regarded this experience with the same shameful uncertainty:

I could observe the act of sex in much more detail than that one glimpse I had at Planet Cyber. I didn’t want to look, but my curiosity got the better of me. To see a video of human beings doing such weird and unspeakable things with each other revolted me. I couldn’t understand what I was seeing. And yet, I noticed I was feeling aroused. (Rodger, 2014, pg. 44)

Both in the first and second time that he watched pornography, he utilized such terms as “penis”, “vagina”, and “human beings”, indicating that he (unconsciously) wanted to distance himself from these experiences, either out of shame or an outright disliking for them. After all, as was established in the preceding section, he valued status above everything else in order to convey to his audience the idea that he was a sophisticated gentleman like his father, as he viewed him. This sense of distance and underlying shame or disliking was also seen in the latter – the first time he masturbated; as he recalled,

It was during this winter break that I experienced my first masturbation and ejaculation . . . I often fantasized about hot naked girls while rubbing my penis against my mattress at night. One time, while doing this, I felt an intense stirring numbness all around my fully erect penis, and it extended all over my body. It felt magical and ecstatic, and I kept rubbing my penis on the mattress. That was when the orgasm happened. I couldn’t believe how much pleasure I felt from that. I looked down at my penis to see that my semen had poured out all over it, like a volcanic eruption of white, sticky fluid. (Rodger, 2014, pg. 46)

Once again, here, Elliot used the same scientific tone in his word choice, showing how unprepared he was for these experiences, especially when bearing in mind his nervous excitement, which would remain for the rest of his life.

Descriptions of sexual experiences aside, there is another aspect of Elliot to take note of – the sort of people whom he found attractive. More specifically, he repeatedly stated how he had a predilection for tall, blonde women; he noted this in the excerpt discussed earlier on the section covering status as a recurring theme to Elliot’s manifesto, wherein he wrote, “...she had very sexy eyes, and she was tall… I always had a thing for tall girls, and this one was almost taller than me” (Rodger, 2014, pg. 80). While never fully explained, height was something of a fixation for him, considering that he mentioned it as a source of his insecurity throughout the manifesto. Not to mention, he also often used height when either criticizing or complementing people. For example, when describing women whom he admired, while he regularly used the term, “pretty”, to describe them, he never expanded upon what exactly made them “pretty” in the first place, save for their height. It is conceivable that the first instance of this was when he recalled his time at summer school in Pinecrest:

I was innocently playing with the friends I made, and they were tickling me, something people always did because I was very ticklish. I accidently bumped into a pretty girl the same age as me, and she got very angry. She cursed at me and pushed me, embarrassing me in front of my friends . . . But she was very pretty, and she was taller than me. (Rodger, 2014, pg. 32)

Here, he mentions nothing more about this girl except her height. On the one hand, one could make the case that he was trying to make a point – that the fact that she was tall in addition to being attractive to him made him feel humiliated in front of his friends, and that, had she been shorter than him, he would not have been as embarrassed. However, he made similar descriptions of other people. In another instance, when he recounted another time that he masturbated, he wrote, “The masturbation session I had after that seven-day dry spell was astounding. I did my usual fantasizing about having sex with a beautiful, tall blonde-haired girl; but this time I intensified it a lot, and made up a whole story in my mind just to make the experience seem more real” (Rodger, 2014, pg. 76). And in another instance, when he sat outside a Domino’s Pizza, he noticed a couple pass by him, with him writing, “A tall, blonde, jock-type guy walked into one of the restaurants, and at his side was one of the sexiest girls I had ever seen. She too was tall and blonde. They were both taller than me, and they kissed each other passionately” (Rodger, 2014, pg. 88). In all three of these examples mentioned, other than hair color, height was the key feature that drew Elliot’s eyes the most. What is conceivable from this is that, from being unprepared for his sexual desires, from the turmoil of the divorce between his mother and father, and from his underlying shame about his sexual desires, Elliot desired someone who could make him feel safe, and who could provide him with a stable, warm, and loving environment. After all, it is important to note the aforementioned arguments between Peter and Chin over email and other mediums, Chin’s manipulations of him against his father, and Soumaya’s stress in her efforts to raise him in a less coddling, more mature fashion, as opposed to Chin’s constant providing for his every desire. Summed up, he had not so much of a sexual desire as he had a desire to be nurtured and provided for.

Passive vs. Active Voice

Elliot frequently used passive voice throughout his manifesto; one recurring word was “would”. Along with this were the words “was”³ and “had”³. Not to mention, the top two phrases comprised of two words were “I was”³ and “I had”³, and the top phrase comprised of three words was “I had to”³. These phrasings indicate something of a paradox in Elliot – that circumstances outside his control behooved him to do certain things, and that neither him nor anyone else in his life had any true agency. On the other hand, he desperately wanted to convey to his readers that he was a highly capable gentleman from a highly respectable background. Naturally, the immediate conclusion to reach from this information would be that he did not want to take responsibility for the consequences of his actions; not for his crime, and not for his condemnable behavior prior to it. But he very much wanted to illustrate himself (at least, within the confines of his manifesto) as someone who, by virtue of having experienced humiliation inside and outside school, deserved to have popularity and a girlfriend in order to raise his social status, despite already having plenty financial resources and a film background through his father to craft a novel or screenplay to be produced or published, which was a goal of his that he repeatedly mentioned (Rodger, 2014, pg. 69). And yet, resultant of his impatience and sense of entitlement, this goal never came to fruition.

However, another thing to account for is the fact that, likely following the divorce between Peter and Chin, Elliot lost his sense of agency in his life, that he was at the mercy of his parents and other extenuating factors, whether he liked it or not. Mumkey Jones additionally discussed this in his video covering the leaked emails of the Rodger family. In this video, Mumkey first shows the emails between Peter and Chin about the former not being able to pay for their son’s car insurance. From these emails, Mumkey concluded that Chin used Elliot as a pawn in her fights against her ex-husband, causing much emotional anguish in him (Mumkey Jones, 2018, 10:08). From being used as a pawn, this contributed to his (perhaps unconscious) notion of not being in control of his life anymore, especially in the wake of the divorce. Furthermore, it is conceivable that Chin’s coddling of him only exacerbated his situation; as he wrote in his manifesto, “Mother always got me what I wanted, right when I wanted it. At mother’s house, all of my needs were met with excellent precision, whereas at father’s house, there would always be a time delay because father and Soumaya had less time for me, and paid less attention to me” (Rodger, 2014, pg. 21). This, plus Soumaya’s own efforts to raise Elliot in a more normal, less coddling fashion forced him into facing certain truths about himself – that he was not as socially adept as he might have thought he was, especially when considering the many times that Chin was the reason for Elliot’s friendships (Rodger, 2014, pg. 17), and not his own efforts. This difference in upbringing left Elliot adopting a strong sense of defeatism. And thus, he felt that the only way in which he could retake said control of his life is through changing the opinions of others, either through his extravagant tastes in clothing and cars, his descriptions of his family background, or – as he unfortunately ended up choosing – heinous murder on a massive scale.