Daniel's Character's Portrayal

In "The Book Of Daniel" there is one narrator and that is Daniel Lewin (Issacson). Although his story stretches from his childhood till he has a family of his own it is the story through his eyes and his alone. The yound Daniel becomes a troubled abusive man later in life. While reading the visions of Daniel when he was young it is easier to forget about what he has become; but in reading what shaped him into the man he is today does answer a majority of the questions that arise while reading some of his acts that he perpetrates against his wife and son.
These are a majority of the quotes of Daniel's self admitted abusive acts.

“She get gets all tight and vulnerable and our love making degrades her.” (Doctorow 7).

“All her instinctive unprincipled beliefs rise to the surface and her knees lock together. She becomes a sex martyr. I think that’s why I married her. (Doctorow 7).

When we were still talking, the father tried to bring himself to ask me about the bruises his wife saw on his daughter’s upper legs; he mumbled and cleared his throat, but I pretended not to understand, and he gave it up. I think they call her during the day. (Doctorow 57).

“”This is a kind of sick kidding around, Daniel. It frightens me. You have no right to freak out driving a car with your own baby in it.” Daniel pressed down further on the accelerator.” (Doctorow 58).

Daniel was pleased with this formulation. She wouldn’t have been capable of it six months before. He thought of complimenting her. Instead he leaned forward and turned of the windshield wipers. (Doctorow 59).

“Don’t hurt me. Just don’t hurt me, Daniel.” (Doctorow 60).

“Do you want to know the effect of three concentric circles of heating element glowing orange in a black night of rain upon the tender white girlflesh of my wife’s ass?” (Doctorow 60).

A self-conscious period of serious talks showed signs of coming to an end. In these talks she looked for rationale to forgive me and I was able to help her find one. We tried to share mutual responsibility for my actions. We considered me as our mutual problem. I was shameless. (Doctorow 99).

We were walking in the park. I tossed my son higher and higher, and now he laughed no longer but cried out. Still I did not stop and I threw him higher and caught him closer to the ground. Then Phyllis was begging me to stop. The baby now shut his mouth, concentrating on his fear, his small face, my Isaacson face, locked in absolute dumb dread of the breath-taking flight into the sky and the even more terrifying fall toward the earth. I can’t bear to think about this murderous felling. Phyllis was pulling at my arm and trying to keep me from throwing my son high in the air and daring us all with the failure of missing him on the way down. I can’t remember my thoughts. I think his weight, the heft of his little body, freaked me. I enjoyed the moment it left my hands and hated the moment it returned, with a shock to all the muscles in my arms. I enjoyed the fear in his mother. (Doctorow 131).

It is in these acts Daniel becomes villianous. But why? Does his portrayal of himself (or in actuallity, Doctorow's) make him out to be a bad guy or just serve to show the damage done? His parents were taken from him by the government and eventually executed for thier beliefs. He lived in an orphanage and foster homes with his younger sister. He then grew to be the man in these abusive acts or that is at least what we're told.