Escape from a Life of Secrets and Emergence of Psychopathy from a Mask of Sanity

Abstract

This paper explores the progression of psychopathy within the main character of Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me. Lou Ford hides behind a social mask depicting a kindhearted oaf to conceal the psychopathic and violent personality that lies beneath. Throughout the novel, Lou Ford’s psychopathic personality begins to surface as he progresses from mere verbal jabs to murder as he tries to escape from his past and his obligations to his father. These obligations that he has put upon himself keep him from leaving the town; however, as he destroys the chains that bind him to the town by murdering those who represents these chains, his psychopathic personality, which is his real personality, grows in strength, and soon, the truth of his violent nature is known by the rest of the characters. In the end, to truly escape from the town, Lou Ford commits his final act: suicide. This act of suicide frees him from the past and he was able to be who he always was, a psychopath.