The American Male at Age Ten

I found the story interesting from the first paragraph. I actually think that a lot is going on in the first paragraph. Juxtapositions, contrasts, and the general eagerness of a child's dream to build a life with this person she venerates so much.

I actually read the first paragraph a few times and each time I did this, something different caught my eyes. The first time I presumed the narrator was the same age as Colin Duffy. Naturally with that in mind the innocence of the voice comes through almost effortlessly. The innocence is represented, I think, in those extremely fantastic desires which were ushered to the reader by way of almost prayerful and almost poetic anaphora of "we would, we would, we would, we would" almost how a child speaks to the man playing Santa Claus in the mall. Also anthemic of her innocence is, as previously stated, how childlike her perspective is of marriage as she speaks of her want fora life with Colin. "We would have matching superhero notebooks...we would both be good at Nintendo Street Fighter II, we would have some homework but it would not be too hard." I got the innocence first.

The second time I read I caught the growing knowledge of troubles in the world. Lines went from pizza and candy to AIDS and the garbage crisis in the world. The narrator then wishes to win the lottery. This was particularly interesting because that is a dream that even adults have and what she would do with the money is so specific; they'd buy land in Wyoming. There is also mention of the fact that though they would have crushes on each other they would not partake in sex. This is extremely mature for a ten year old to be thinking and later on we see more subjects like these come up when she is asked if she would have an abortion if she was told she was going to have a boy instead of a girl.

I also found the song “Here Comes the Rain Again” pretty interesting for a ten year old to be thinking of. As it contains lyrics like “talk to me like lovers do. Walk with me like lovers do.” as well as a few other darker lyrics.

I also appreciate the discipline in watching only two hours of television on Fridays.