Character musings

[mari4212]

wisdomeagle was talking about how her ideas about McKay seem to be very different from the rest of the fandom. So that got me thinking, what do I see Dr. Rodney McKay as?

I'll start with some of the facts we are given about his childhood, and extrapolate from there.

McKay mentions at various different times that: his parents disliked each other and blamed him, that he is very allergic to lemons and bees, that when he was young he used to dream of being a concert pianist, that his teacher told him that he was a fine clinical player but that he lacked artistry, that he made a working model of a nuclear bomb in sixth grade, that he kissed a girl and ended up being out of school for a month with mono, that he and his sister have not been in contact for years, and in his letter to his sister he mentions that he began to understand what family meant on Atlantis.

What do those points add up to, aside from one large run on sentence? Let's start with what McKay's family life would have been like as a child. He mentions that his parents disliked each other. I think we can safely assume that for McKay to have noticed it, it had to be a pretty serious resentment. Yet he talks about them as a unit, implying at least to be that they didn't get divorced. One of the main reasons cited by people who don't want to get divorced is that they should stay together for the kids. That then turns into a reason to blame Rodney for their troubles. If he wasn't around, they wouldn't have to stay together. I'd think that that would make for a pretty poisonous atmosphere to grow up in. That also matches up with McKay saying that he didn't understand what a family was like until he got to Atlantis.

Extrapolating further, I'm going to guess that Rodney's parents were probably somewhat emotionally neglectful towards him. They didn't want him, they blamed him for their problems, so they weren't there for him emotionally. They probably made sure that his physical needs were met, but I doubt that as a child Rodney would have felt emotionally secure. I'll get back to this later.

So from this home life, we then move on to Rodney's medical conditions. In the show, McKay mentions his allergies several times. He also mentions hypoglycemia, and he acknowledges that he is a hypochondriac. From the emphasis he places on his allergies, I'm willing to bet he's had a few allergic reactions, and I'll bet that at least one of them was during his middle childhood, or around five to ten years old. By that time, he'd be old enough to remember it, but young enough to still feel very helpless and dependent during the reaction. At that age, it would shape a large portion of how he sees the world. I'm willing to bet that while his parents were emotionally neglectful, they were still taking good physical care of him, and that he probably received a lot of attention when he was sick, and it would have been focused on helping him instead of blaming him.

Tying back into my earlier extrapolations, this is a boy who does not often feel loved and cared for, suddenly receiving a lot of positive attention and physical care. He'd associate being sick with being cared for. Is it any wonder that he focuses a lot on his health, and is a bit of a hypochondriac?

Moving away from his immediate home life, we are told that he played piano well enough to dream about preforming as an adult, and that he was very advanced for his age at school. Not many sixth graders are making models of nuclear bombs, and that kind of talent doesn't evolve overnight. I'm willing to bet that his teachers would have praised him, and encouraged him in his school work. That probably meant that he was at least somewhat ostracized from his peer group, and that he learned to prize his intelligence as the one thing that got him constant approval after his piano teacher told him that he wouldn't succeed as a pianist. In other words, his value depended on his brains.

To me, this sort of childhood shaped McKay into a man who is simultaneously very arrogant and lacking in self esteem. If he isn't brilliant, the smartest person around, he doesn't know how to define his self worth. He doesn't trust or love easily, because he's learned that too many people who he should count on will betray him, but I get the sense that once he bestows trust or affection upon someone, it is theirs until they betray him. And I have the feeling that it will hurt him deeply every time.

McKay has no middle ground. If he likes or loves you, he does so deeply. If he doesn't, he really doesn't. If he believes in something, he does so whole heartedly. And if he doesn't believe in it, heaven help you if you mention it in front of him.

Thoughts, questions, random death threats?

Comments

[mari4212.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I'm going to have to do more character essays if this is the response I get.

[heylittleriver.livejournal.com]

Mmmm. You will.

I have to admit, I'm really quite interested in your view on Sheppard - especially since your comment about how you identify the least with him.

[mari4212.livejournal.com]

I think I'll do him next. This most recent episode has confirmed a few things for me.

[heylittleriver.livejournal.com]

Oh, yay! *bounces*