Columbine: Chapter 23 Summary & Analysis

Dylan Klebold, Dave Cullen writes, was “born brilliant.” Named for the poet Dylan Thomas, he was born in Jeffco and, as a child, was a sports fan and a “driven competitor.” He idolized major league players “until the day he died.” Dylan and Brooks Brown were childhood friends, and Brooks’ mother, Judy, remembers witnessing one of Dylan’s explosive temper tantrums when he slipped and fell at a creek as an eight-year-old. He lashed out, humiliated, and Judy, after that day, grew to expect to see Dylan “go crazy” any time he “got frustrated with himself.” Over time, his “anger and loathing traveled inward.”

In 1990, the Klebolds, escaping the Denver sprawl “encroaching into Jeffco,” moved further back into the foothills. Dylan identified as a “part-time country boy.” Then in middle school, Dylan was “repuls[e]d” by “suburbanite assholes” and he found solace in nature. He “treasured tranquility,” but, Cullen writes, “loved a good explosion.”