Broken Family: Sawyer's Family Tragedy
Here's Sawyer, an angry, "don't give a crap about anyone or anything" man with a big chip on his shoulder. So where did all this attitude come from?
Well, to begin with Sawyer carries a letter around with him that he wrote as a young child, but never sent it. When Kate tries to get under his skin about acting like a bad boy all the time, she mentions the letter she sees him read once in a while and rubs it in about the careful way he treats the letter. Angry, Sawyer makes her read it:
|
Quote: | |
"Dear Mr. Sawyer, you don't know who I am but I know who you are and I know what you done. You had sex with my mother and then you stole my dad's money all away. So he got angry and he killed my mother and then he killed himself too." (Sawyer makes Kate read on) "All I know is your name. But one of these days I'm going to find you and I'm going to give you this letter so you'll remember what you done to me. You killed my parents, Mr. Sawyer." |
Sawyer leads Kate to believe that this letter was given to him by the young child who wrote it. But later, Kate discovers it was actually him who wrote the letter:
|
Quote: | |
KATE: "I read it again, and then again, because I've been trying to figure out why you beat up Boone instead of just telling him you didn't have his sister's medication. Why you pretended to have it anyway. The thing that I keep coming back around to is that you want to be hated. Then I looked at the envelope. America's bicentennial, Knoxville, TN. You were just a kid, 8 maybe 9 years old. This letter wasn't written to you. You wrote this letter. You're name's not Sawyer, is it?"
SAWYER: "It was his name. He was a confidence man. Romanced my momma to get to the money, wiped them out clean, left a mess behind. so I wrote that letter. I wrote it knowing one day I'd find him. But that ain't the sad part. When I was 19, I needed 6 grand to pay these guys off I was in trouble with. So I found a pretty lady with a dumb husband who had some money. And I got them to give it to me. How's that for a tragedy? I became the man I was hunting. Became Sawyer. Don't you feel sorry for me. (Grabs the letter) Get the hell out. Get out!"
Excerpts from Confidence Man, written by Damon Lindelof |
Hence, we find out the reason for Sawyer's attitude and why he never corrects the others wrongful accusations. He expects people to hate him because he feels he deserves it for turning into something he despises.
The pain and anger of losing his parents becomes more obvious when we find out he actually witnessed his father killing his mother and then committing suicide. Sawyer still blames the real Sawyer for the loss of his parents even though it was his father that killed his mother. To him, the true source of his family tragedy was the conman.
He also may not have any respect for married women or women in general. We have only seen him use women for his gain up to this point. Not only the fact that his mother had an affair but an affair with a man that totally ruined his childhood may have triggered a disrespect for the fairer sex.
* Note: In (TLC) Sawyer's con, Cassidy, is newly divorced and got a settlement, that of which Sawyer was really after.
*Note: In (The Brig) we find out that Anthony Cooper is the real Sawyer.
Sawyer You ever been to Jasper, Alabama?
Anthony Why?
Sawyer Have you or haven't you?
Anthony Yeah, I've been to Jasper. Don't tell me I'm your daddy?
Sawyer No. You killed my daddy. |
Locke has put James in the brig along with Cooper.
He wants James to kill him. Once James hears him say his alias
and that's he's been to Jasper, he makes Cooper read the letter
he's carried around with him all these years. James takes a hanging
chain and wraps it around his neck. Killing Sawyer forever.
Possible Adoption/Foster Care Issues: Sawyer
Also, since he lost both of his parents, we do not know where he went or who he lived with. He may have had a rough childhood furthering the anger and revenge towards the real Sawyer. This also may be supported when he talked to Jack about his father. Sawyer made a comment that "kids are like dogs, if you kick them around enough they start to think they deserve it." Was Sawyer speaking from experience.
After he's been imprisoned for the con he pulled on Cassidy, Sawyer receives an unexpected visitor: Cassidy herself. She comes bearing news: Sawyer is the father of a daughter named Clementine. Sawyer, confused by the news, refuses to accept it:
SAWYER: Why are you telling me this?
CASSIDY: I just thought you could write her a letter. Her name's Clementine.
SAWYER: What the hell am I going to write, "Dear Goo-goo, Ga-ga?" She's a baby. She ain't mine.
CASSIDY: Sawyer, she is...
SAWYER: I ain't got no daughter. |
Later, when Sawyer comes into money after giving up Munson's information ot the feds, he sets up an account for the daughter that he denied, on one condition--it can never be traced back to him.
|
