Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual assault.

John Wesley Rattner is a figure of innocence, though he is not permitted to remain innocent. Kenneth’s death casts a profound shadow over John’s life, especially as he never truly had time to get to know his father. Even when he was alive, Kenneth was largely absent from John’s life, and in death he leaves a void. John’s mother tells him lies about his father, claiming that Kenneth was a God-fearing man, when in fact Kenneth was an unrepentant criminal who lied to his wife about the platinum plate in his head and his medical war records. The distance between Mildred’s version of Kenneth and the reality emphasizes the difficulty faced by John: He is subject to the lies and delusions that are passed down across the generations. When Mildred makes John promise to “find the man that took away [his] daddy” (35), he cries. He does not know how to exact revenge against someone he does not know. Nevertheless, he is trapped in Cyclical Violence by the ghost of his father.

The irony of John’s childhood is that the most important male influence in his life is the man who killed his father.