Lester's motivation in Child of GodIn the novel Child of God. Lester Ballard committed heinous crimes against innocent victims. He murdered people in cold blood and raped dead women. What drives a human being to do this can tell us a lot about criminals and humans themselves. In this article I will attempt to analyze some of the fundamental questions at the heart of this story. Why did Ballard do what he did, how responsible is he, and what his punishment should have been. From the moment he was born, Lester Ballard seemed to have been cursed with misfortune. His mother had run away from home when he was a child and his father had hanged himself when he was nine or ten. Lester was actually supposed to see his father hanging from the ceiling. This would leave a permanent scar on any child, including Ballard, as the author notes: "They say he was never right after his father committed suicide." » (21) From then on, Ballard seems to have gone where life took him. What he suffered from was a complete lack of awareness. Ballard was a pit before he understood what that word meant and he never learned the concept his entire life. He didn't know what things meant, he didn't even know what was happening. Every signal he received from the outside community told him that there was no place for him, that he was not accepted. Even when Ballard walks into a church service, a place where people are accepted and loved, he is rejected for who he is. People spoke of him in hushed tones: “A whirlwind of windy whispers spread among them. » (31). His community, through rejection, victimized Ballard. Rejection may well be the most powerful form of victimization, because it cuts off the air from the most precious need for connection and love. Connecting Ballard's background and childhood to his crimes is a difficult task. Other than his parents, we aren't told much about what he experienced as a child. Due to the bizarre nature of his crimes, he appears to have gone through intense suffering and agony. Many of his crimes were committed against women. He raped women, but only after killing them. A living woman might have been too much for Ballard to handle; the risk of rejection would have been too great for him.