Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, domestic violence, and child abuse.

Dexter is this novel’s narrator and protagonist. He is a complex, round character, an antihero who reflects the slippery boundary between good and evil. Dexter is a serial killer who only kills other predators, especially those who target children. Dexter lives by a strong moral and behavioral code laid out by his adoptive father, Harry Morgan: Dexter only kills “deserving” individuals who pose a serious threat to society; he works neatly and efficiently without taking trophies from his murders; and he blends in with his colleagues and peers. He finds this code calming and describes himself as “a very neat monster” (12). Because of Dexter’s moral code, he is one of the text’s primary ways of interrogating Vigilante Justice and the Nature of Good and Evil. Although he has evil impulses, Dexter is nonetheless a figure associated with the “good” of ridding society of murderers and predators.

Dexter also exemplifies the lasting impact of childhood trauma. Bearing witness to his mother’s murder and spending days trapped in a shipping container full of her

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