David Foster Wallace Incarnation Of Burned Children Analysis

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Sara Nichole Walton January 31,2012 English 102 Guilt of a Burned Child Accidents happen! If the unthinkable happened and your child was the victim of a trauma who would you blame? In” Incarnations of a Burned Children” By David Foster Wallace this question is pushed in your face. The story is told from the daddy’s point of view until the very end when you get a since of what the little boy feels. It is never clearly known if the child dies in the story. It’s just left up to your interpretation. The author leaves it up to the reader by saying "the child learned to leave himself and watch the whole rest unfold from a point overhead." (Wallace) Either way the child is badly injured and the outcome is not good. Who is to blame for an accident?…show more content…
The mother is portrayed as hysterical and invoking god she blames herself. The author does not tell you what the mother was doing when this accident happened. This may not matter but sometimes the unknown leaves questions of doubt. “The Daddy was around the side of the house hanging a door for the tenant when he heard the child's screams” The talks about the Daddy running to the child and the mother standing there. The Daddy is always active as the describe the mom as standing there I feel that because the father doesn’t play the stereotypical father role this makes the mother to assume more guilt in the story. Instead of the mom cuddling the child the author wrote “Mommy over his shoulder invoking God until he sent her for towels and gauze if they had it, the Daddy moving quickly and well and his man's mind empty of everything but purpose”. Is this because of her character or the fact that most people don’t know what to do in the situation of a trauma, even if it is their own

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