"The American Male at Age Ten" - Response

 In Susan Orlean’s “The American Male Age Ten” we get a complete character profile of a ten year old boy named Colin. Orlean provides us with this intricate and complex boy by creating a world through use of extremely vivid imagery. Specifically, Orlean uses incredible detail and appeals to the readers senses (sight, touch, hearing, taste, and even smell) to create this world in which this ten year old boy Colin lives. Moreover, Orlean creates these extraneous characters, settings, and scenes that put the reader in her world. For example, in her description of Danny’s Pizzeria, Orlean writes:

                

“Danny's Pizzeria is a dark little shop next door to the Montclair Cooperative School. It is not much to look at. Outside, the brick facing is painted muddy brown. Inside, there are some saggy counters, a splintered bench, and enough room for either six teenagers or about a dozen ten-year-olds who happen to be getting along well. The light is low. The air is oily. At Danny's, you will find pizza, candy, Nintendo, and very few girls. To a ten-year-old boy, it is the most beautiful place in the world.”

In this paragraph alone Orlean appeals to the senses of sight, touch, hearing, and smell.

The first two words is where picture truly begins. Instead of just calling it a generic “Pizzeria” without a specific name, Orlean gives it the proper title “Danny’s Pizzeria”. This allows the reader to evoke an image instantly with words and sign that reads “Danny’s Pizzeria”. She then uses color and space to describe it as “ a dark little shop next door to the Montclair Cooperative School”. In doing so, we understand not only a feel for the pizzeria itself, but also we understand a bit more of the community and how Colin might frequent this place. Again, she uses color to describe the façade by giving a extremely specific description “the brick facing is painted muddy brown”- not just any kind of brown- a very specific “muddy” brown. She then gives you a feel for “saggy counters” and a “splintered bench”- appealing to the readers sense of touch. In doing so the reader can feel the splinters pricking them as they soon understand from her next sentence how crammed it can be in “Danny’s Pizzeria.” My favorite sentence though is “The air is oily.” Not often describing air as oily makes you wonder what she actually means by that while at the same time you know exactly what she means. She could have described the air as “thick” or “heavy” or any number of different words that are often associated in describing air. But she chose “oily”. It’s perfect. It not only appeals to the sense of smell but, helps you understand how and why a ten year old “American Male” would love this place so much.