The piece "The American Male at Age Ten" by Susan / provides a unique and interesting way to introduce a character to a reader. She offers small vignettes and clips of stories that give way to the personality of the main character, Colin. I felt like I knew Colin just from reading this piece. Each paragraph could be an introductory paragraph to another story. The paragraph-or rather, part of the story-I enjoyed the most was Colin’s conversation with his friend Japeth outside the pizzeria. The dialogue gave a deeper insight into both of these little boy’s minds. They are talking about things you expect young kids on the verge of puberty to talk about-video games and girls. I believe this conversation gives the best example of what stage Colin is at in his life. I liked this story because it gave me insight to a dynamic that I otherwise wouldn’t get to know. We all have come into contact with a 10-year-old child but rarely do we ever get the chance to fully understand how they see the world. Of course we were all 10 years old at some point, but how we think and our opinions change so much over time that it’s hard to remember that time of our lives. This piece gave a refreshing view. Boys at this age are on the brink of teenage hood (and after that adulthood) but are still incredibly ignorant about the things around them. Colin understands that he’s attracted to some girls more than others but still refers to them as “Stupid and weird”. I very much enjoyed the way this piece was written as well. It is not obvious who the narrator is. At first I thought it was another 10-year-old but the writing seemed too mature for that to be the case. Then I thought a parent, but the parents were mentioned. The only person it could be would be a babysitter or neighbor. It is written very objectively, as the writer is just an omnipotent observer.
I like how you said that each of her paragraphs (or short stories within this short story) could be the beginning to their own story. I think that could be a really great thing to have--every paragraph available to be an opening paragraph--since beginnings are expected to develop character quickly in order to jump into the story. Consequently, the character of Colin is very dense and appears to be fully explained as a 10 year old boy who is friends with everyone, likes playing arcade games and talking about money and not really too much about girls.
ReplyDeleteBut since each paragraph could be the start to it's own story, it's even more impressive that the story feels like a story rather than a mod podge of facts that introductions of character. This probably has to do with the narrator, which you took for a babysitter/neighbor/omnipotent observer. I'm not entirely convinced that the narrator is a real person, and not just a strange voice that can assume the perspective of anyone from a girl classmate to the dog to whomever (maybe except for Colin). I think that if the narrator was a set thing/person that was developing with the story and we were learning about both Colin and the narrator throughout, it would be much less a series of introduction paragraphs but rather, indisputably one narrative.