Violence

Murder

Weapons

The Labyrinth

Castration

Hormones

Madness

Mothering

Stereotypes

Nature / Nurture

It occurred to me then, as it has before, that that is what men are really for (killing). Both sexes can do one thing specially well; women can give birth and men can kill.(6)

The idea that to be male is to be violent is central to Frank's construction of self.
This aggression is reflected in his love of weapons, particularly explosives, his attacks on wildlife and gratuitous killing of small animals and of course the killing of three young children (when 'he' himself was young).

I became the killer, a small image of the ruthless soldier-hero almost all I've ever seen or read seems to pay strict homage to. I would find or make my own weapons and my victims would be those most recently produced by the one act I was incapable of. . . (6)