The character I have chosen for this assignment is Arnold from the story “The Stone
Boy” written by Gina Berriault. In this story, the main character, a little boy, shows symptoms of
Schizoid Personality Disorder. Arnold has shown difficulty expressing emotions or acting
appropriately in emotional situations, humorless, indifferent or emotionally cold to others, and he
doesn’t react to praise or critical remarks from others. After killing his brother Arnold was
treated like he didn’t exist, the officers would talk about how insane the situation was right in
front of him, his parents somewhat ignored him as well as his sister. He didn’t really have much
of a reaction after hearing what the Sheriff thought of him, but he did think about why he left his
brother, he questioned himself which shows that he’s not actually cold-hearted and that he just
could have had a different way of grieving or reacting.
Some causes of Schizoid Personality disorder are trauma, especially emotional and
physical abuse, violence, or abuse in the home during childhood, and trauma caused by war or
having a parental figure who is cold, neglectful, and remote. Arnold could have been probably
traumatized after seeing he shot his brother in the neck, the guilt was probably too much and in
actuality he is still a little boy at the end of the day. He was still not open to the idea of dying, or
killing, he’s just starting out in life. Also, regarding the cause of having a cold parental figure, for
all we could have known, the way he is could’ve been because of his parents. Why did the
parents leave a weapon like that out in the first place anyway? Why do the kids feel comfortable
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to go out for that long by themselves without their parents worrying one bit? There were many
factors in the situation that would have prevented the shooting if they never happened, so this
makes me question the mom and dad’s parenting.
I will be using the scene where “He was feeling the same discomfort he had felt when he
had watched Eugie sleeping; his brother didn’t know that he was lying face down in the pasture.
Again he said, “Hey, Eugie,” An anxious nudge in his voice. But Eugie was as still as the
morning about them.” The setting of this scene was outside near the lake, some objects that
surround Arnold and Eugie are the tub that he uses for the peas, the fence that the rifle got caught
on, and there were ducks rising from the lake. Using the senses to describe the scene, I would say
touch is the main one, Arnold describes the peas being cold and not realizing that they were
numbing his fingers. An example of dramatic irony is that Arnold said he felt somewhat anxious
or uncomfortable yet he carried on with his day as if nothing happened or as if he did not care. In
the quote “Then Arnold saw it, under the tendril of hair at the nape of the neck–a slow rising of
bright blood.”, color is being used to describe Eugie’s blood, perhaps it was bright for a reason.
Key aspects of the character Arnold that are also interesting, are how he acts and his
behavior. He seems emotionless but given the way he thinks and questions himself, there has to
be more to him. He wants to let his emotions out and express his feelings but he doesn’t seem to
know how to. A probable cause could have been the environment that he grew up in because he
seems to bottle up his emotions and keep everything inside very frequently. He would actually
rather let the sheriff and his parents think that he is a complete monster, than say he did not know
why he did what he did. His parents did not seem like they were the most affectionate and did
not show him the love he needed which caused him to act that way. I think we gain a different
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perspective of Arnold’s point of view since it is in third person.We get to be more intrigued and
hypothesize what or why he feels the need to keep to himself.
After my first time going over the story I genuinely believed that Arnold had some form
of psychopathy and that he felt nothing because I did not really analyze his behavior close
enough to notice that he was actually questioning himself. I believed that he often lacked
empathy, and after accidentally shooting his brother and killing him, he still failed to show any
type of remorse or guilt. After going through other people’s thoughts on the situation I saw that
Arnold is just hiding and he’s letting the guilt eat him up, he’s letting his parents and sister take
out their emotions on him instead of thinking about how he feels. They never stopped to think
about how a child must be coping with the fact that he accidentally killed his brother and is now
looked at as some kind of a monster.
In this scene in the book “he had had no answer–all he could say was that he had gone
down into the garden to pick the peas. His father had stared at him in a pale, puzzled way.”
Arnold was explaining to his uncle and father that after accidentally shooting his brother Eugie,
that he continued the task his parents sent him to do in the first place which actually says a lot.
This may mean that Arnold was more scared of coming home without picking the peas like he
was supposed to than going back to the house to tell his parents about his brother. Also, the fact
that earlier on in the story he was freezing and his legs got to the point where they were numb he
still continued to pick the peas. He was probably scared of disappointing his parents, and once
again he’s just a child.

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