Vinegar Years- Chapter 1

He withdrew into himself and built walls around his emotions. People seemed to him to be ugly and predatory. His early teens were a jumble of bewilderment and confusion. His peers in school seemed to him stupid and distant. Rage began to grow in him. Hate for his father solidified into a rebellious attitude towards all adults. He grew cold and hard, for the hand that grips with an iron grasp begets a soul of iron in that which it grips. He began to pity his mother for the inescapable prison she was in. He lived in a desperation that was smothering him. He absorbed his father's prejudices and attitudes.