The Depth of Booker DeWitt

Booker DeWitt Quick Navigation Links:
Character Breakdown: Booker DeWitt
The Booker DeWitt Workout
The Skills of Booker DeWitt
The Depth of Booker DeWitt

Hey guys, sorry this is up a few days late.  Let’s get right into it, eh?

Booker is a pretty rough character at times, with a troubled past.  The atrocities he’s committed are hinted at, and sometimes directly spelled out, throughout your time with him.  He was at the Battle of Wounded Knee, where many, many natives were slaughtered, and apparently collected battle trophies as well.  He was a member of the Pinkertons, known for their violence and intimidating coercion methods.  Obviously battle-hardened and battle-tested, Booker would probably appear as a villain if you played as him in his earlier adventures in life.

Even in his time in Columbia, he spends his time lying to Elizabeth, and can make quite a few questionable choices during his escapades.

But this isn’t all that Booker is.  He’s also a man running from his past.  He wants to erase his debts, and forget the pain he’s suffered (Anna et al.).  He’s not exactly happy about having to deceive Elizabeth, but he sees it as a necessary evil to clear his ledger, and probably pretty inconsequential compared to the things he’s done.

Throughout all of this, though, he begins to develop a personal relationship with Elizabeth.  They’re forced to rely on each other, and it builds a bond between them.  Booker’s concern for her goes beyond just the contract he’s on, and it reveals a different side of the man his past would say he is.  He’s a remarkably reasonable man for the history he has, and shows signs of a real wish for something like atonement, or at the very least the ability to leave his crimes in a past life.

Sometimes we do things we aren’t proud of.  It could be something as small as eating something we shouldn’t have, or not pulling through for a friend when they needed us.  It could also be something as big as committing a violent crime, or willfully causing harm to people.  Regardless, most people have some amount of “red in their ledger.”  Frequently, we find ourselves wishing we could go back and undo what we did.

People do bad things sometimes.  Sometimes, that person may be you, sometimes, it might be someone else doing something to you.  What I try to keep in mind is…people are people.  Even if a person does something horrible, they’re still a person.  Booker did horrible things, but he’s still a human being, with wants, needs, loves, feelings, and, yes, guilt.

We can’t go back and change things we’ve done.  But we can take a position of forgiveness, and a chance at redemption.  Sometimes, we are our own worst critics.  I can look back at some particularly cringe-worthy moments of my life and still wonder what the heck I was doing, still get that horrible feeling of, “Oh man, that was a baaaaad move.”  But I need to let this go, make the apologies I can, and move on.

Remember this in your dealings with other people, too.  We all have skeletons in our closets, and we all have complicated ways of dealing with these skeletons.  Part of realizing you’re a human being that makes mistakes is also realizing that everyone else is, too.  Maybe that person that harmed you in some way also feels guild, or maybe they don’t.  Either way, holding on to the negativity isn’t going to do anything to improve your life, or your relationship with them.

Paths to redemption are possible, if we look for them.  Never shut your eyes to the possibility of a brighter tomorrow.

That’s it for today!  Sorry we’re a couple days late on this, wanted to finish Bioshock first (btw it’s amazing [like I need to tell you that]), and then had a reaaally busy weekend.  We’re all good now, though, and we should be getting another post or two up today, as well.  If you haven’t joined The Champions Guild yet, head on over and sign up now so you can be kept current with what’s going on with the blog!  You’ll also get two free eBooks written by yours truly.  Check it out!

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Dan “DaRatmastah” Wallace