Columbine

Columbine

by

Dave Cullen

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Columbine makes teaching easy.

Eric Harris Character Analysis

Eric Harris, the psychopathic ringleader of the Columbine shooting, kept meticulous journals for a year and a half prior to Columbine, planning the attack and describing his motive for carrying it out: his burning, undying hatred of the human race and his desire for its total annihilation. An overachiever in school and a “charming” young man with an active social life, Eric was not the bullied outcast the media attempted to cast both him and Dylan Klebold as. Rather, Eric—according to Dave Cullen and to Columbine investigator and FBI psychology expert Dwayne Fuselier—was a “full-blown psychopath,” a charming but cunning and manipulative individual incapable of experiencing empathy for another human being. As Eric’s high school career progressed, he experienced several failures, the most notable being first the falling out of his friendship with Brooks Brown, which threw him into a tailspin of spewing hatred on his own personal blog and repeated threats and attacks against Brown and his family; and second, Eric and Dylan were arrested for felony theft and forced to enter a diversion program in order to avoid being sentenced to prison. These indignations sent Eric Harris into a frenzy, and he began planning a day of judgment, which he referred to as NBK (after the film Natural Born Killers,) and which he hoped would bring him the satisfaction and glory of wiping out as many as two thousand people—the entire student population of Columbine—in one afternoon. A lifelong lover of explosives, Eric began building pipe bombs and smaller “cricket” bombs made from fireworks, as well as recruiting his friend Dylan’s prom date, Robyn Anderson, to help the boys acquire guns. Eric steadily convinced Dylan to take part in the killings, though Dylan privately showed a great deal of resistance. As the date of the attack grew closer, Eric developed a fascination with wearing all-black outfits, Nazi ideology and the life of Adolf Hitler, and obsessively recording—alone in journals and together with Dylan in a series of videotaped addresses to their “audience”—his hatred of humanity, desire for its destruction, and plans for the earth-shattering attack which he hoped would bring him glory, fame, and eternal recognition. Eric sadistically and indiscriminately murdered twelve classmates and one teacher before growing tired of the massacre. After failing twice to explode massive propane bombs he’d shoddily constructed in his parents’ home, Eric and Dylan both retreated to the school’s library and committed suicide together. Though Eric’s method of suicide—a gunshot through the mouth—left behind nothing to scan, experts believe that, had a brain scan been performed, Eric’s would have shown levels of activity barely recognizable as human—the most conclusive sign of psychopathy.

Eric Harris Quotes in Columbine

The Columbine quotes below are all either spoken by Eric Harris or refer to Eric Harris. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Violence and Spectacle Theme Icon
).
Chapter 14 Quotes

The fundamental experience for most of America was almost witnessing mass murder. It was the panic and frustration of not knowing, the mounting terror of horror withheld, just out of view. We would learn the truth about Columbine, but we would not learn it today. The narrative unfolding on television looked nothing like the killers’ plan. It looked only moderately like what was actually occurring. It would take months for investigators to piece together what had gone on inside. Motive would take longer to unravel. It would be years before the detective team would explain why. The public couldn’t wait that long. The media was not about to. They speculated.

Related Characters: Dave Cullen (speaker), Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold
Page Number: 67
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 40 Quotes

Because dyads, murderous pairs who feed off each other, account for only a fraction of mass murderers, little research has been conducted on them. We know that the partnerships tend to be asymmetrical. An angry, erratic depressive and a sadistic psychopath make a combustible pair. The psychopath is in control, of course, but the hotheaded sidekick can sustain his excitement leading up to the big kill. “It takes heat and cold to make a tornado,” Dr. Fuselier is fond of saying. Eric craved heat, but he [easily grew bored and] couldn’t sustain it. Dylan was a volcano. You could never tell when he might erupt.

Related Characters: Dave Cullen (speaker), Dwayne Fuselier (speaker), Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold
Page Number: 244
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 44 Quotes

Eric didn’t have the political agenda of a terrorist, but he had adopted terrorist tactics. Sociology professor Mark Juergensmeyer identified the central characteristic of terrorism as “performance violence.” Terrorists design events “to be spectacular in their viciousness and awesome in their destructive power. Such instances of exaggerated violence are constructed events: they are mind-numbing, mesmerizing theater.”

Related Characters: Dave Cullen (speaker), Eric Harris
Page Number: 277
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 48 Quotes

Now [Eric] had to concentrate on getting Dylan a second gun. And [he] had a whole lot of production work. If only he had a little more cash, he could move the experiments along. Oh well. You could fund only so many bombs at a pizza factory. And he needed his brakes checked, and he’d just had to buy winter wiper blades, and he had a whole bunch of new CDs to pick up.

Related Characters: Dave Cullen (speaker), Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold
Page Number: 306
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 49 Quotes

Oddballs are not the problem. They do not fit the profile. There is no profile. Attackers came from all ethnic, economic, and social classes. The bulk came from solid two-parent homes. Most had no criminal record or history of violence. The two biggest myths were that shooters were loners and that they “snapped.” A staggering 93 percent planned their attack in advance. “The path toward violence is an evolutionary one, with signposts along the way,” the FBI report said. Cultural influences appeared weak. Many perps shared a crucial experience: 98 percent had suffered a loss or failure they perceived as serious—anything from getting fired to blowing a test or getting dumped. Of course, everyone suffers loss and failure, but for these kids, the trauma seemed to set anger in motion. This was certainly true in Columbine; Dylan viewed his entire life as failure, and Eric’s arrest accelerated his anger.

Related Characters: Dave Cullen (speaker), Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold
Page Number: 322
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 50 Quotes

“More rage, more rage!” Eric demanded. He motioned with his arms. “Keep building it.”
Dylan hurled another Ericism: “It’s humans I hate.”
Eric raised Arlene, and aimed her at the camera. “You guys will all die, and it will be fucking soon,” he said. “You all need to die. We need to die, too.”
The boys made it clear, repeatedly, that they planned to die in battle. Their legacy would live. “We’re going to kick-start a revolution,” Eric said. “I declared war on the human race and war is what it is.”
He apologized to his mom. “I really am sorry about this, but war’s war.”

Related Characters: Eric Harris (speaker), Dylan Klebold (speaker)
Related Symbols: “Arlene”
Page Number: 327
Explanation and Analysis:
Epilogue Quotes

There’s another pernicious myth: that Eric and Dylan succeeded. Measured by [the shooters’] own standards, Columbine was a colossal failure so unrecognizable as terrorism that we ranked them first among the school shooters they ridiculed. Killers keep trying to relive the glory and elation at Columbine. There was none.

Related Characters: Dave Cullen (speaker), Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold
Page Number: 386
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Columbine LitChart as a printable PDF.
Columbine PDF

Eric Harris Quotes in Columbine

The Columbine quotes below are all either spoken by Eric Harris or refer to Eric Harris. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Violence and Spectacle Theme Icon
).
Chapter 14 Quotes

The fundamental experience for most of America was almost witnessing mass murder. It was the panic and frustration of not knowing, the mounting terror of horror withheld, just out of view. We would learn the truth about Columbine, but we would not learn it today. The narrative unfolding on television looked nothing like the killers’ plan. It looked only moderately like what was actually occurring. It would take months for investigators to piece together what had gone on inside. Motive would take longer to unravel. It would be years before the detective team would explain why. The public couldn’t wait that long. The media was not about to. They speculated.

Related Characters: Dave Cullen (speaker), Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold
Page Number: 67
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 40 Quotes

Because dyads, murderous pairs who feed off each other, account for only a fraction of mass murderers, little research has been conducted on them. We know that the partnerships tend to be asymmetrical. An angry, erratic depressive and a sadistic psychopath make a combustible pair. The psychopath is in control, of course, but the hotheaded sidekick can sustain his excitement leading up to the big kill. “It takes heat and cold to make a tornado,” Dr. Fuselier is fond of saying. Eric craved heat, but he [easily grew bored and] couldn’t sustain it. Dylan was a volcano. You could never tell when he might erupt.

Related Characters: Dave Cullen (speaker), Dwayne Fuselier (speaker), Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold
Page Number: 244
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 44 Quotes

Eric didn’t have the political agenda of a terrorist, but he had adopted terrorist tactics. Sociology professor Mark Juergensmeyer identified the central characteristic of terrorism as “performance violence.” Terrorists design events “to be spectacular in their viciousness and awesome in their destructive power. Such instances of exaggerated violence are constructed events: they are mind-numbing, mesmerizing theater.”

Related Characters: Dave Cullen (speaker), Eric Harris
Page Number: 277
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 48 Quotes

Now [Eric] had to concentrate on getting Dylan a second gun. And [he] had a whole lot of production work. If only he had a little more cash, he could move the experiments along. Oh well. You could fund only so many bombs at a pizza factory. And he needed his brakes checked, and he’d just had to buy winter wiper blades, and he had a whole bunch of new CDs to pick up.

Related Characters: Dave Cullen (speaker), Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold
Page Number: 306
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 49 Quotes

Oddballs are not the problem. They do not fit the profile. There is no profile. Attackers came from all ethnic, economic, and social classes. The bulk came from solid two-parent homes. Most had no criminal record or history of violence. The two biggest myths were that shooters were loners and that they “snapped.” A staggering 93 percent planned their attack in advance. “The path toward violence is an evolutionary one, with signposts along the way,” the FBI report said. Cultural influences appeared weak. Many perps shared a crucial experience: 98 percent had suffered a loss or failure they perceived as serious—anything from getting fired to blowing a test or getting dumped. Of course, everyone suffers loss and failure, but for these kids, the trauma seemed to set anger in motion. This was certainly true in Columbine; Dylan viewed his entire life as failure, and Eric’s arrest accelerated his anger.

Related Characters: Dave Cullen (speaker), Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold
Page Number: 322
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 50 Quotes

“More rage, more rage!” Eric demanded. He motioned with his arms. “Keep building it.”
Dylan hurled another Ericism: “It’s humans I hate.”
Eric raised Arlene, and aimed her at the camera. “You guys will all die, and it will be fucking soon,” he said. “You all need to die. We need to die, too.”
The boys made it clear, repeatedly, that they planned to die in battle. Their legacy would live. “We’re going to kick-start a revolution,” Eric said. “I declared war on the human race and war is what it is.”
He apologized to his mom. “I really am sorry about this, but war’s war.”

Related Characters: Eric Harris (speaker), Dylan Klebold (speaker)
Related Symbols: “Arlene”
Page Number: 327
Explanation and Analysis:
Epilogue Quotes

There’s another pernicious myth: that Eric and Dylan succeeded. Measured by [the shooters’] own standards, Columbine was a colossal failure so unrecognizable as terrorism that we ranked them first among the school shooters they ridiculed. Killers keep trying to relive the glory and elation at Columbine. There was none.

Related Characters: Dave Cullen (speaker), Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold
Page Number: 386
Explanation and Analysis: