Early Life

Having not known much about Hitler's early life, I found myself surprised at the sympathy I felt towards this young child. You do not normally find your self feeling sorry for someone who can do such awful things. And while it does not excuse the things he did, you can see how the things that happened in his childhood could have led to this. Where if certain things had gone differently he may not have became the man he was.
His father being such a dominating figure and his mother being so submissive, I feel can be attributed to his views on men and women, that can be seen later in life. Those really formative years for a child, did not give him the best role models or values concerning men and women. His father also seemed to be distant. They also both died before he really matured and reached adulthood and was prepared to go at things on his own.
His schooling, seemed to also have a major impact on his later life. He started out excelling and school coming very easily during his elementary school years, despite moving many times. The transition to high school seemed to be a difficult one for him- he lacked close friends and started doing poorly. Finally, his inability to get into the art school of his dreams, seemed to really affect him and his life following. His in ability to maintain and hold a job and lack of funds.
He also seemed to have a very idealized view of things, that if he thought he was going to achieve it he would. Which could have only led to bigger disappointment when things did not go his way, and he seemed to lack the skills to rectify it. He seemed to have this strong feelings about things that were difficult to change. He had a strong fear of uncleanliness, dirt, and disease which he seemed to associate with Jews, which then turned from hatred to a conspiracy theory, linking Jews with evil. He seemed to have irrational thought processes and did not have good coping mechanisms.
He really is proof of how not one thing or another can really put you down a bad path, but when viewing all of these things together lead him down this path to such hatred. How something as simple as had he gotten into art school could have changed the course of history.