Many of Stephen King's writings explore the theme of evil, and Apt Pupil is no exception. He incorporated his ideas of malevolence into the characters of Todd Bowden and Kurt Dussander. The beginning of the story delves into the dark thoughts of a boy whose encounter with Dussander encourages the growth of his dark side. From Patin's stories to killing animals, the potential for evil can be seen in the eyes of the two and leads them to the ultimate evil: murder. It all started when Todd found his "BIG INTEREST". Staring at those old war magazines completely lost. Like a key turning in a lock, he opened his inner thoughts and thus set in motion the creation of a monster. His fascination with magazine horror stories led him to Kurt Dussander, a former Nazi general stationed in Patin. Through the process of blackmail, Dussander was forced to tell stories about the Nazi concentration camps, about the poisonous gas that came out of the showers, about all the horrors that took place there. Todd "got excited" by "silly" stories that stimulated his thoughts. Millions of signals flickering in his brain like a euphoric feeling satisfying every evil brain cell. Dussander acted as a catalyst that encouraged the growth of Todd's dark side. Although it seemed to Todd that the relationship between him and Dussander was one-sided, the old war criminal was also benefiting from it. He is reborn. Never in so long had the old man felt so alive, just like in the good old days in Patin. The two of them were like parasites to each other. Todd, who fuels his inner evil with war stories, and Dussander, who relives his youth by telling them. But they both began to realize that stories couldn't make them happy. The need for a greater evil accumulates like a snowball rolling down a hill. It got bigger and bigger. The forgotten tales of the thousands of Jews herded into the gas chambers must have rekindled some evil spirit that lived in Kurt Dussander and was trying to escape. Almost as if in a trance, he lured a cat by luring it with a bowl of milk, grabbed it and threw it into a gas stove. An evil smile spread across his face as he listened to the cat scream.