Character Analysis
Our first impression of Mr. Pugh is that he's a stereotypical sadistic prison guard—"Shut up, worm!" (1.3) are pretty much the first words out of his mouth.
Sure enough, he's really into displays of power, like when he puts on a show at Evergreen on Reese's first day. "I turned around and he handcuffed me with the receptionist looking," Reese says. "That made me feel bad, but I knew he wanted me to feel bad" (1.65). There's something about violence that Mr. Pugh definitely seems to enjoy.
Could this be due to his dark past? We know he fought in the Iraq War and that he has a disturbing temper. Sometimes he seems to lose himself when he's violent with Reese and the other inmates: "I looked into his face. It was twisted and mad," Reese says; "He said something I couldn't understand, spitting all over me as he talked" (19.37-19.38). Something about Mr. Pugh seems super unstable and scary.
But occasionally, he shows a softer side. Once Mr. Pugh buys Reese a candy bar, and he even offers him unsolicited advice a time or two. But most of the time, he seems like a bad (and even criminal) employee. Once he leaves the room when he knows a fight is about to go down. (Does he want the boys to get in trouble? Does he want an excuse to get violent with them? We don't know.) And one day, when he's driving Reese from Evergreen back to Progress, he pulls a gun on a citizen. "You know how much I love that?" he asks Reese when it was over. "Yeah, I got an idea" (31.38), Reese answers. We do, too, Reese; we do, too.