34 pages • 1 hour read
Walter Dean MyersShooter
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2004A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Madison High School Incident Analysis Report I—Interview with Cameron Porter Submitted by Dr. Richard Ewings, Senior County Psychologist”
Dr. Richard Ewings, senior county psychologist, interviews Cameron Porter, a 17-year-old former student at Madison High School in Harrison County. Cameron was a friend and classmate of the late Leonard (“Len”) Gray, who shot and killed another student at the school and injured several others. Background information on Cameron describes him as an African American student with good grades. He comes from a wealthy two-parent family. The interview takes place six months after the April 22nd shooting.
Dr. Ewings asks Cameron about his relationship with his parents. Cameron tells the doctor his father works in quality control at a heavy equipment manufacturer. He says his father travels a lot for work, is often away from home, and that he and his parents don’t talk much. When they do talk, his parents mostly talk about their work.
Ewings asks Cameron what music he likes. Cameron says that the media has distorted his musical tastes. He listens to the black metal band Satyricon but is “not a freak for them” (14). He adds that he is “not into any Fourth Reich number” (14). He tells Ewings that he agreed to talk to him to set the record straight. Ewings agrees with Cameron that the media tends to “distort reality” (14).
Cameron says he sees himself as “pretty much average” (14). Ewings points out that Cameron does not have an average IQ, and that he had tested in the 140 range, which is very high. Cameron remarks that his father says it’s possible to have a high IQ “and still be stupid” (15).
Cameron says he met Len Gray in his sophomore year while trying out for the basketball team. Len came to practices just to watch. When he didn’t make the final cut for the team, Cameron’s father, who played basketball in the Army and as a pro in Europe, was upset and criticized him. When he played basketball with his father, his father belittled him and told him he played like a girl.
Cameron recalls that a week after he was cut from the team, his father “fixed” the situation (17), and the coach told Cameron he made the team after all. Cameron found out a kid named Boyd was cut to make room for him. The other boys on the team knew what happened and resented Cameron, refusing to hang out with him.
Cameron describes a racist incident involving Len’s father, whom Cameron describes as “super macho” (20). Cameron accompanied Len and his father to a shooting at a private camp: “There were these guys, all white, who talked about guns and about how the country was getting too soft and letting too many immigrants in, that sort of thing. They have a camp and a shooting range” (23).
They shot at targets, which were mostly comic book villains, but then a target popped up, “and it was Martin Luther King Jr. holding a gun, and they all shot him down” (24). When Ewings says how rough that incident must have been, Cameron says that it was “no big deal” (24). He says he didn’t agree with it, but “you don’t have to like everything that everybody does” (24).
Cameron says he started taking an antidepressant after he and Len were arrested for vandalizing a church. Cameron says it was Len’s idea to vandalize the church because he considered it not “righteous” (27). The event occurred before Christmas, and Len objected to the manger scene outside the church. Cameron recalls that Len wrote: “GOD DOESN’T LIVE HERE!” on the wall of the church (27). Cameron wrote, “JESUS WOULDN’T EVEN RENT THIS SPACE” (27). After their arrests, both Cameron and Len were sent to psychiatrists and prescribed antidepressants.
Ewings asks if Cameron ever thought of putting his arms around Len and holding him. Cameron responds that he never thought of kissing Len or any other guy. He says he’s not gay and criticizes the newspapers for reporting that he and Len were “really close” (31).
Cameron says he has thought of suicide since the incident. He says his father threatened to hit him and told him he was ashamed of him.
Cameron recalls a bullying incident started by a girl who criticized Len for wearing a hat indoors. The girl slapped Len after he accidentally spit on her while talking. Len slapped her back. The jocks jumped Len and punched him until a teacher broke it up. Later, some of the jocks, including the girl’s boyfriend, Brad, surrounded Len and Cameron, slapping them around and calling them “faggots” and “pussies” (37).
Upset by the incident, Len convinced a kid taking a drug like Prozac to give him his prescription. Len was caught by a pharmacist. The school then suspended Len.
Cameron talks about another incident that happened on the football field after Len returned to school. Brad and the other jocks confronted Len. Brad grabbed Len’s collar and slapped him. Cameron says Len told him that if he, Cameron, had not been present, he would have killed Brad. Cameron says Len pulled a Ruger gun out of his coat and showed it to Cameron. Cameron says the gun belonged to Len’s father.
Cameron says Len wore black clothing all the time and a dark hat. Cameron toned down his dress as well but not as much as Len. Ewings comments that teenage boys often dress a certain way to impress girls.
Asked if he and Len talked about girls, Cameron said they did, but they didn’t have girlfriends. He says: “We weren’t gay or anything like that” (47), one of several times during the interview that Cameron says he and Len were not gay.
Cameron describes Len’s relationship with Carla. They hung out together, and Carla “went dark” like Len. She wore dark mascara and black lipstick. However, Carla broke up with Len. Carla accompanied Len and Cameron on a shooting in the woods. When she discovered that Len had put live turtles from a pet store in the target bags, Carla was outraged.
Cameron recalls the cruel way that Len got back at Carla for breaking up with him. Len found out that Carla had been molested and told the school’s email chain. Carla was devastated by the violation of her privacy.
Cameron talks about how his father berated him for quitting the basketball team. His father made him play him one-on-one and beat up on Cameron, bruising his face.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Madison High School Incident Analysis Report II—Interview with Cameron Porter Submitted by Special Agent Victoria Lash, Federal Bureau of Investigation Threat Assessment Analyst”
Special Agent Lash asks Cameron about his membership in a school club called Ordo Saggitae. When Cameron responds that he guessed he wanted to belong to something, Lash asks: “Why didn’t you join the Boy Scouts?” (71). Lash also asks Cameron about his association with the Patriots, a group of racist people that Len’s father shoots with.
Cameron describes the incident with the turtles as “no big deal except that I didn’t want to kill the turtles” (74).
Lash responds sarcastically: “Just a few minutes of killing, and it wasn’t really a big deal. Is that what you’re saying?” (74).
Cameron replies that he didn’t know turtles were in the bags when he shot at them.
Lash questions Cameron about his relationship with Carla. Cameron admits to kissing her once but says it didn’t go further.
Lash then asks Cameron how Len got his guns. Cameron says that Len got an AR-18 from a guy at a gun show. Lash says that police also recovered a Kalashnikov.
Lash points out that she learned Jews were not allowed in Ordo Saggitae. Cameron says that Len got angry at a teacher who made a joke that he took as an insult. The teacher happened to be Jewish. Cameron says: “I don’t think Len had it in for Jews” (80).
Lash replies: “It sounds to me as if he had a lot of free-floating hate that he spread around pretty liberally” (80). She points out that Len threatened to shoot the Jewish teacher. Cameron claims that Len kept saying he would shoot her but was not serious. Lash points out that Len threatened a lot of people. Cameron responds that people threatened him and Len as well. He says the jocks were always threatening to beat up Len and make him “lick their shoes” (82).
Lash asks Cameron a lot of questions about his parents’ finances. She asks Cameron how much money is in a First Savings account that his parents let him draw from, and how much money his parents spent on installing an indoor pool. Cameron resents the questions and is evasive. Lash demands he answer them.
Lash questions Cameron about his attending gun shows. She asks him how the gun shows made him feel. Cameron insists he liked looking at the guns at the show but wasn’t turning into a “gun freak” (89). When Lash asks him about a rifle that he bought from one of the Patriots at the range, Cameron says: “They’re always buying and selling weapons. They’re not like target shooters. They’re more like military people—soldiers, I guess” (90).
Lash notes that Cameron quit the basketball team: “Cameron, I’m getting mixed signals here. On one hand I’m getting the idea that you and Len were being bullied or pushed away from the mainstream. On the other hand I’m seeing you as a person who deliberately moves away from groups” (93).
Lash points out that Len painted the number “88” on the wall of a church that he and Cameron vandalized. She asks Cameron what the number means. Cameron says that Len just made up a number to see what people would think. Lash dismisses this, saying that both Len and Cameron knew that 88 stands for “Heil Hitler” (95).
Lash asks Cameron why he and Len didn’t just avoid bullies. Cameron describes how the bullies called him anti-gay names and that it made him feel like he was nothing.
Lash ends the interview by asking Cameron if he considers himself a threat to society. Cameron responds that he does not.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Madison High School Incident Analysis Report III—Interview with Carla Evans Submitted by Dr. Franklyn Bonner, Spectrum Group, Threat Assessment Specialists”
The intro to the report describes Carla’s physical appearance as “one of rebellion” (105), noting the streaks of blue dye in her hair, sloppy dress with stockings that don’t match, and “overuse of makeup” (105).
Carla describes her turbulent family life. Her parents split when they lived in Saginaw. She went to live with her mother. When her mother became dysfunctional, she went to stay with her father in his trailer. She describes her father as “a loser,” and says that “[a]ll he cared about was his next beer” (108). She refuses to discuss why she left her father’s trailer.
Carla says when she first met Len she liked him; he was “really sincere” and “didn’t try to crawl into my pants right away” (109). She liked hanging out with Len and Cameron because they were both outsiders like her.
Carla describes the falling out she had with Len after he posted her personal information on the Internet. However, she refuses to answer any of Bonner’s questions about being molested. She explains why she accepted Len’s apology for humiliating her online: “He didn’t sound like he was gaming me or anything. I also have this thing about confrontations. It’s like I don’t confront people about stuff, if I just get past it, I can put it out of my head” (113).
Carla recalls that, after apologizing to her, Len told her about a female artist who did paintings in blood. Len planned to go to the school and write “Stop the Violence” on the walls of the school in his own blood (114).
Carla agreed to help Len with his plan by arriving at the school at 7:30 a.m. before the first bell, which rang at 8:05, and telling a maintenance person that she needed to use the bathroom. She would then leave the door open for Len and Cameron. She decided to buy paint and bring it to the school; she thought it was impractical for Len to use his own blood as he might bleed to death.
Carla says that her plan went awry when her family’s Chevy Cavalier overheated; she had to take time to put water in the radiator and wait for the car to cool down. When she arrived at the school, it was 7:50. The back door was already opened. She went to the third floor and saw Cameron “all bug-eyed and wild looking” (116). Then she saw Len with “ammunition all wrapped around his body” (116), and she knew “something big was going to happen” (116).
She was about to ask Cameron what was happening when a window exploded next to her, sending glass flying everywhere. She heard Len screaming and wanted to go back to help him, thinking someone was after him. Then she heard loud shots. At that point, she says Cameron pulled her away, pushed her into a closet in an audiovisual room, and closed the door. She sat there crying and shaking until a guy from the SWAT team opened the door and took her out: “They had Cameron handcuffed and they handcuffed me,” (117) she recalls. “That was it" (117).
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
The interviews provide a detailed glimpse into the dysfunctional family lives of Len’s two friends, Cameron and Carla. Cameron and Carla come from vastly different backgrounds, Cameron from a wealthy, two-parent family, Carla from divorced parents of the lower economic class. However, they share a sense of alienation from their parents. This disconnection comes through loud and clear in their interviews. They also both shun the mainstream and “go dark,” and both are vulnerable to Len’s influence.
Myers depicts guns as negative. Guns are associated with the racist Patriots, who shoot at Martin Luther King Jr. Myers suggests that Len’s access to guns made the incident possible, even if there were other causal factors at play. Len was able to carry a Ruger gun in his coat pocket, the way other people carry wallets or their phones.
The format of the chapters—two interviews with Cameron and an analysis report of Carla—lend the narrative verisimilitude, a sense of being real and true. As readers, we discover things along with the experts. We begin to learn what essentially happened—that Len opened fire on his classmates and himself—but we don’t know exactly why. The why—or motive—is as important as the what, and lies at the heart of the novel.
Cameron is different in his interviews with Dr. Ewings and Special Agent Lash. Ewings is empathic, enabling Cameron to open up. We learn details about how the jocks bullied Len and Cameron and made them feel like outsiders. We also learn how Cameron’s father is a bully, and how Cameron contemplated suicide. In contrast, Lash lashes out at Cameron, such as when asking why he didn’t just “join the Boy Scouts” (71), and interrogates him about his parent’s wealth. Cameron becomes defensive, making light of the shooting incident with the turtles. Myers shows how adults, like teenagers, are imperfect and different from one another. Compassion—as well as hostility—go a long way in influencing behavior.
The Columbine high school massacre may have influenced Myers. On April 20, 1999, Colorado high school students Dylan Bennet Klebold and Eric David Harris killed 13 of their fellow classmates and wounded others before dying by suicide.
After the incident, media claimed that Klebold and Harris were outsiders and part of a group called the Trench Coat Mafia. The news featured sensational headlines about the killers’ supposed interest in the occult, Hitler, and black clothing (much like Len and Cameron) which later turned out to be untrue. (The Washington Post. “Bullies and black trench coats: The Columbine shooting’s most dangerous myths.” 2019. Washingtonpost.com.)
Related Titles
By Walter Dean Myers
