The Perspective of The Little Boy

In the very beginning of class, we discussed Doctorow as a narrator, and the possibility of whether he could possibly be the little boy or, at least, shared his perspective and spoke through him came up. Ever since then, I've been paying attention to the little boy in the chapters so far - specifically, when the perspective of the story shifts to him and what he does when this happens.

This book is full of changing and shifting perspectives, so much that it can be hard to figure out whose thoughts Doctorow is speaking from or who the story is being told from. For example, in the chapter where Goldman and Evelyn Nesbit meet, the shape of narration was influenced by Younger Brother's perspective, even though the audience (or at least, I did) most likely forgot that he was even there until the end of the chapter. I think Doctorow is very clever and purposeful when he chooses who he tells the story through, which is why I payed attention to these moments.

The first time we see the little boy is in the very first chapter, when he is still quite young. He's obsessed with Harry Houdini -- and Doctorow uses this opportunity to introduce Houdini to the story, as right after we hear about the little boy's fascination with the escape artist, Houdini crashes into the telephone pole outside of their house, the boy the only witness to the event. The chapter ends with the boy telling Houdini to "warn the duke" -- seeming to know Houdini would meet Franz Ferdinand as well as the assassination of the duke that started World War 1.

The next time we get the little boy's perspective is when Mother finds the little baby in the garden. It switches from Mother's narration, listing her various worries, to her son observing her as she discovers the baby. It's an interesting choice to have his perspective throughout this scene, that would've naturally fit into Mother's perspective as the discoverer, but until the scene is over and the doctor and police leave, the boy follows the action around in a narration marked with small, factual observations. Just as with Houdini, the boy seems to intuitively know when major events for his family are happening - after all, the discovery of this baby leads to a path that brings Coalhouse Walker into the life of the family. By choosing to show this through the point of the boy, Doctorow cements the character's importance and draws attention to his peculiarities. So far, the boy has already shown signs of an almost supernatural and definitely strange understanding of the world.

This is accented by his next appearance, when he's a bit older. The book describes him watching things and causing it to move, and staring at the mirror until he became two people in it. Additionally, he's fascinated by the discarded, constantly collecting it, such as Tateh's silhouettes. Even Mother notes that he seems odd and it worries her. Perhaps what most stuck out to me was the end of chapter fifteen ends with "the boy's eyes saw only the tracks made by the skaters, traces quickly erased of moments past, journeys taken". The little boy seems to be out of touch with reality, seeing pasts and presents. While I can't predict where Doctorow will take the boy in the rest of the book, I am certain he is setting something up with him and his abilities, and the points where the book take the son's perspective are major moments that intrigue me and, I predict, will continue to do so.