John Bristow’s Characteristics as seen in Robert Galbraith’s The Cuckoo’s Calling
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John Bristow is a cruel person because John Bristow dares to kill people. John Bristow kills his brother, sister and also his sister’s friend in order to satisfy his
desire. When John Bristow was 11 years old, John Bristow kills his little brother Charlie Bristow. John Bristow kills Charlie Bristow by pushing him into a quarry.
John Bristow kills Charlie Bristow because he wants to be the only son in Bristow’s family and gets all the attention and love from his parents. It can be seen in
statements below. Tony knows you did it, doesn’t he? All that bullshit about the hard, cruel
things he said after Charlie died. Tony was there; he saw you cycling away from the place where you’d pushed Charlie over. Did you dare him to ride
close to the edge? I knew Charlie; he couldn’t resist a dare. Tony saw Charlie dead at the bottom of that quarry p. 555
John Bristow feels happy because he can be the only son in Bristow’s family. However, John Bristow’s happiness changes into his sadness. After Charlie Bristow’s
death, Bristow’s family adopts a new child named Lula Landry. Sir Alec Bristow adopts Lula Landry because Lady Yvette is deeply sad after losing her son and he
knows that his wife wants to have a daughter. Lula Landry’s appearance in Bristow’s family makes a new life for Sir Alec Bristow and Lady Yvette. However, the
happiness in Bristow’s family is the sadness for John Bristow. John Bristow hates Lula Landry, but he keeps his disappointment and grows up together with Lula
Landry. Lula Landry becomes a famous supermodel while John Bristow works as a
lawyer. One day, John Bristow asks Lula Landry to give her money but she refuses John Bristow’s wishes and John Bristow gets angry because of it. John Bristow’s
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anger makes him become mad. Then, John Bristow plans to ask Lula Landry again to give her money. In the cold night John Bristow asks Lula Landry the same thing and
she refuses again and yells at John Bristow that John Bristow would not get anything even a penny. John Bristow becomes mad and pushes Lula Landry from her balcony
into her death. It is showed in statements below. And you killed her, just the same way you killed Charlie, just the same way
you later killed Rochelle: you pushed her, hard and fast – maybe you lifted her - but she was caught by surprise, wasn’t she, just like other?
You were yelling at her for not giving you money, for depriving you, just as you’ve always been deprived, haven’t you, John, of your portion of parental
love. She yelled at you that you wouldn’t get a penny, even if you killed her. As
you fought, and you forced her across her sitting room towards that balcony and the drop, she told you she had another brother, a real brother, and that he
was on his way, and that she’d made a will in his favor. ‘It’s too late, I’ve already done it’ she screamed. And you called her a lying
fucking bitch, and you threw her down into the street to her death p. 559
From the statements above, it is obvious that John Bristow is a cruel person. Referring to Murphy’s theory, John Bristow’s character can be seen from by another
and his mannerism. John Bristow’s cruelty is revealed by Mr. Strike during the investigation of Lula Landry’s death. Mr. Strike finds out the surprising truth behind
Lula Landry’s death. Mr. Strike is another character that finds spitefulness of John Bristow. Mr. Strike figures out that John Bristow is Lula Landry’s murderer and John
Bristow is a rude man that can do anything to get everything. John Bristow dares to murder his sister for the sake of money. John Bristow’s cruelty also can be seen from
his mannerism. John Bristow hates when he failed to get what he wants. John Bristow has a bad habit that he will do anything to catch everything he wants even he has to
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do such a crime. John Bristow hates Lula Landry when she refuses to give her money and when she yells at him. John Bristow then becomes mad and kills Lula Landry in
the same way he kills his brother. Referring to Murphy’s theory, John Bristow is a cruel person can also be seen
from his reactions when John Bristow faces the problem. In reinvestigation, Mr. Strike finds someone named Rochelle Onifade, she is Lula Landry’s friend. Mr.
Strike asks John Bristow about Rochelle Onifade but he says that he does not know her. When Mr. Strike asks about Rochelle Onifade, John Btistow becomes worry. It is
because Rochelle Onifade is the only one who knows about Lula Landry’s will. It can be seen in the statements below.
Rochelle told you. She was there in Vashti when Lula called Jonah and arranged to meet him that night, and she witnessed a will leaving him
everything. She came to you, told you everything and started blackmailing you. She wanted money for a flat and some expensive clothes, and in return
she promised to keep her mouth shut about the fact that you weren’t Lula’s heir p. 547
John Bristow does not want Mr. Strike to meet Rochelle Onifade. Then John Bristow plans to meet Rochelle Onifade in order to kill her. John Bristow kills Rochelle
Onifade in the river in Thames. John Bristow kills Rochelle Onifade by pushing her from Thames’ bridge into the river and Mr. Strike finds it out. Mr. Strike gets a call
from the police that they find a dead girl in the river in Thames. Not so good, actually. We’ve just fished a body out of the Thames with your card on it. Wondered
what you could tell us about it, said the police p. 463.
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John Bristow is a cruel person can also be seen through Freud’s theory about the structural concepts of mind: id, ego, and superego. Id is the selfish beast, ego is
the executive of personality, and superego is the conscience and ego ideal. According to Freud’s theory, John Bristow’s ego cannot control his id and superego. John
Bristow’s id wants him to be the only one who gets Lula Landry’s money without regard for the good of others. His id controls him to get all his desire without thinking
the morality. Then his ego helps him to act how to get Lula Landry’s money in any way. That is why John Bristow can be said as a cruel person because he has no
morality in his action. John Bristow’s superego cannot control him to avoid the bad actions, because the id and ego has no morals and they control John Bristow’s to do
anything to satisfy his desire without thinking the consequences of his action to others.
c Dishonest Referring to Murphy’s theory, John Bristow is a liar from the character as
seen as by another. John Bristow as a liar can be seen from Mr. Strike’s thought in the whole story of the novel. As Strike had suspected, Bristow had not been honest
when he asserted that the police had made no effort to trace the Runner and his sidekick p. 85. The statement shows that John Bristow is not honest. He hides
information from Mr. Strike. However Mr. Strike finds out the truth during the investigation. Mr. Strike knows that John Bristow lies to him. It is because Mr. Strike
has many experiences in dealing with people who loves to tell a lie.
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John Bristow being a liar can also be seen from his speech when he tells Mr. Strike that he does not know a woman named Rochelle Onifade. John Bristow says
that he does not know about Rochelle Onifade, it can be seen from the statements below.
“God knows what Lula was doing with her,” said Tansy. “Oh, you must remember, John. She was fat. Scruffy. Looked a bit
subnormal.” “I don’t …” mumbled Bristow.
“Are you talking about Rochelle?” asked Strike. pp. 198-199
Mr. Strike also finds out that John Bristow is a liar because John Bristow puts every obstacle in finding Rochelle Onifade. Mr. Strike tries to meet Rochelle Onifade and
Mr. Strike get an opportunity to meet her in a café. Mr. Strike asks Rochelle Onifade everything but Rochelle Onifade gives simple answers. From Rochelle Onifadde, Mr.
Strike makes a conclusion that Rochelle Onifade and John Bristow has a secret about Lula Landry’s death. It can be seen in the statement below.
You put every obstacle you could in the way of me finding Rochelle,” Strike went on, as though he had not heard Bristow. “You pretended you didn’t
know her name, or where she lived; you acted incredulous that I thought she might be useful to the inquiry and you took photos off Lula’s laptop so that I
couldn’t see what she looked like. True, she could have pointed me directly to the man you were trying to frame for murder, but on the other hand, she knew
that there was a will that would deprive you of your inheritance, and your number one objective was to keep that will quite while you tried to find and
destroy it. Bit a joke, really, it being in your mother’s wardrobe all along. p. 547
From the analysis, it can be stated that John Bristow is a liar. He lies to Mr. Strike in order to hide his crimes. He deceives Mr. Strike with all his lies. John
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Bristow never tells the truth when Mr. Strike asks him about Rochelle Onifade. He also gives a fake story about Lula Landry’s death.
Based on Freud’s theory, we can conclude that John Bristow is a liar. John Bristow’s desire about Lula Landry’s money makes him to tell a lie about the Lula
Landry’s death. John Bristow knows that he cannot get Lula Landry’s money if Lula Landry dies because of suicide. He goes to meet Mr. Strike and pretends about his
feeling and tells Mr. Strike how much love he has for Lula Landry. John Bristow does not think about the consequences about telling a lie. John Bristow just wants to
satisfy his desire about Lula Landry’s money, no matter even he has to tell a lie about Lula Landry’s death fact.
d Greedy Referring to Murphy’s theory, John Bristow is a materialistic person, it can be
seen from his past life and character as seen as by another. John Bristow grows up in a rich family and lives in a luxurious life. He has rich parents and family with a good
reputation. His childhood that lives in a luxury makes him become a materialistic and greedy person. When he was young, he wants to be the only son in Bristow’s family.
That is why he killed his brother, Charlie Bristow, in order to be the number one in his family. He kills Charlie by pushing him into the quarry. It is stated below.
Tony knows you did it, doesn’t he? All that bullshit about the hard, cruel things he said after Charlie died. Tony was there; he saw you cycling away
from the place where you’d pushed Charlie over. Did you dare him to ride close to the edge? I knew Charlie; he couldn’t resist a dare p. 555
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John Bristow’s materialistic and greed makes him to do bad thing. He becomes a murderer because he wants to get everything. After he kills his brother, he
kills his sister. He kills Lula Landry in order to get Lula Landry’s money. He pushes Lula Landry from her balcony in her flat because Lula Landry refuses John Bristow’s
wishes. Then, John Bristow becomes mad and angry then he kills Lula Landry like he kills Charlie Bristow. It is confirmed below.
You were yelling at her for not giving you money, for depriving you, just as you’ve always been deprived, haven’t you, John, of your portion of parental
love. She yelled at you that you wouldn’t get a penny, even if you killed her. As
you fought, and you forced her across her sitting room towards that balcony and the drop, she told you she had another brother, a real brother, and that he
was on his way, and that she’d made a will in his favor. ‘It’s too late, I’ve already done it’ she screamed. And you called her a lying
fucking bitch, and you threw her down into the street to her death p. 559
John Bristow kills Lula Landry and he gets away. After that, John Bristow realizes that he will never get Lula Landry’s money if her death is caused by a
suicide. John Bristow asks a private detective to reinvestigate Lula Landry’s death. John Bristow thinks that Mr. Strike will help him to find out the murderer. John
Bristow gives the information about Lula Landry’s death to Mr. Strike and he wants Mr. Strike to capture Jonah Agyeman as the murderer of Lula Landry. So, John
Bristow can be Lula Landry’s heir. However, John Bristow gets it wrong that Mr. Strike figures out that John Bristow wants to take benefits from Mr. Strike
weaknesses. Mr. Strike discovers that John Bristow is Lula Landry’s murderer. It can be seen in the statement below.
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One of the detectives in charge of the case told me that Ciara had said that. A Detective Inspector Carver. He was convinced from the first that it was
suicide and he appeared to think that this supposed talk with Ciara demonstrated Lula’s intent to take her own life. It seemed a strange line of
reasoning to me. Do suicides bother with wills? p. 268
From the analysis of John Bristow, it can be seen that John Bristow is a materialistic and greedy person. Referring to Murphy’s theory, John Bristow is a
greedy person from character as seen as by another. Mr. Strike finds out John Bristow greediness that John Bristow wants to take the advantages from him because
Mr. Strike is Charlie Bristow’s friend. John Bristow thinks that he can use Mr. Strike because Mr. Strike will help him to get Lula Landry’s money. However, Mr. Strike
knows and reveals the truth that John Bristow wants to make a trap for Jonah Agyeman as Lula Landry’s murderer and John Bristow will become Lula Landry’s
heir. Referring to Alderian theory of personality, it is clearly explained that
someone’s personality might be influenced by social perspective and his striving for superiority of success. Since John Bristow is an adopted son by a rich family, his
social life is in a luxury life. John Bristow lives in a rich family that makes him become a materialistic person, and it changes him into a greedy person. John Bristow
wants to get all the loves, attention and money. John Bristow social group and his childhood make him to do everything even it is bad in order to get what he wants.
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2. John Bristow’s Motivation in Supporting Lula Landry’s Death Investigation as seen in Robert Galbraith’s The Cuckoo’s Calling
Every action has a reason, a reason that motivates someone for doing something. According to Lahey 2009, motivation refers to the internal state or
condition that activates and gives direction to our thought, feelings, and action. Motives are at the center of our lives-they arouse and direct what we think, feel, and
do p. 360. In analyzing John Bristow’s motivation, the writer cannot use the theory of
motivation only. However, knowing John Bristow’s characteristics can be helpful in analyzing John Bristow motivation. That is why in analyzing John Bristow, it is
important to combine John Bristow’s characteristic and the theories of motivation. It can be helpful in analyzing John Bristow’s motivation in supporting Lula Landry’s
death investigation as seen in Robert Galbraith’s The Cuckoo’s Calling. Needs also can influence someone’s motivation. Referring to Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs, this study found out that there are three needs in John Bristow for asking Mr. Strike to reinvestigate Lula Landry’s death. Those four needs can be seen
in this study are safety, belongingness, and self-esteem. Safety needs motivate John Bristow to ask Mr. Strike in reinvestigating Lula
Landry’s death and it also motivates John Bristow to get Lula Landry’s money. John Bristow asking Mr. Strike’s help in order to get Lula Landry’s money to save him
from the red ink. It is found out by Mr. Strike.
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But I think that row was really about Lula’s refusal to give you money. All her sharper friends have told me you had a quite the reputation for coveting
her fortune, but you must have been particularly desperate for a handout that day, to force your way in and start shouting like that. Had Tony noticed a lack
of fund in Conway Oates’s account? Did you need to replace it urgently? p. 550
Love and belongingness needs also motivate John Bristow to get Lula Landry’s money. John Bristow who has lived in a luxury life with a good reputation
family and friends make him become a greedy person. John Bristow wants to stay in a comfortable environment with luxury social relationship and he becomes scared to
be poor. Self-esteem needs also take part to motivate John Bristow to reinvestigate
Lula Landry with Mr. Strike’s help. John Bristow wants Lula Landry’s money as a power. John Bristow will be more confident and get strength from Lula Landry’s
money. It also can give a good reputation and status. John Bristow thinks that Mr. Strike will help him to get Lula Landry’s money and he will get double awards. First,
he will get power to control and become more confidence to stand in his own feet. Second, he will get a good reputation as a good brother and son. John Bristow also
wants to be respected by people. According to Lahey 2009, there are two types of motivation: intrinsic and
extrinsic motivation. The study reveals that John Bristow motivation in supporting Lula Landry’s death can be seen from his intrinsic motivation and extrinsic
motivation. The first, John Bristow’s intrinsic motivation is John Bristow naturally wants to earn Lula Landry’s money. John Bristow’s desires about Lula Landry
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control him to reinvestigate Lula Landry’s money. The second, John Bristow’s extrinsic motivation is Lula Landry’s money as a present. John Bristow will earn Lula
Landry’s money if the investigation can reveal the truth that someone kills Lula Landry.
This is an intrinsic and extrinsic motivation because John Bristow did the reinvestigation with desire of money and expecting Lula Landry’s money as presents.
He wants to satisfy his desire and earn Lula Landry’s money. That is the only reason that motivated John Bristow in supporting Lula Landry’s death investigation.
According to Lahey 2009, intrinsic motivation is when people are motivated by inherent nature of the activity, their pleasure of mastering something new, or the
natural consequences of the activity. While the extrinsic motivation, it is motivation that is influenced by external factors. John Bristow naturally wants Lula Landry’s
money, which is why he does the reinvestigation about Lula Landry’s death. He wants to change the conclusion about Lula Landry’s suicide case become a murder
case. Then, after Lula Landry’s death is considered as a murder case, John Bristow can earn Lula Landry’s money. Hence, John Bristow reinvestigates Lula Landry’s
death because of money.
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