Hate List

Chapters 11 and 12 cover Valerie’s in-patient treatment following the shooting. In a heartbreaking scene that Valerie describes as straight out of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, her mother and Dr. Dentley commit her forcibly, with the help of two orderlies, to in-patient care; the team uses a sedative to restrain a wild Valerie, who thinks, selfishly, before losing consciousness, “Mom cried, too, and I took some satisfaction in that, though not nearly enough” (177). She frantically remembers the nearby recovering Christy Bruter and thinks, as orderlies carry her thrashing body down the hall, “Christy Bruter would have a field day with this one” (176). She manages to mumble sorry to the room, as she passes Christy’s room. Christy, her mother, and father stare out as the orderlies carry Valerie to the psych ward. Even after all this, Christy Bruter’s and Stacey’s perceptions of her still consume Valerie, indicating Valerie has a way to go with maturity and her recovery.

Chapter 12 also provides a commentary on psychiatric care during Valerie’s in-patient stay. In this setting, patients glorify her for her part in the shooting, while therapy teaches her to pretend to get healthy by suppressing her anger; this, in turn, guarantees a release. Valerie ignores the unhealthy, inert, disgusting environment in order to get out. She becomes an ultimate pretender, telling people what they want to hear; she says she understands Nick was wrong for her and that college is the right path.