Incarnations of
Burned Children
-David Foster Wallace
This short tale by David Foster Wallace instantly throws the reader
into a state of panicked chaos, not knowing why this child is
screaming but we instantly feel the need to help this child, much
like “The Daddy.” Wallace writes this story with very little
punctuation, no paragraph structure, nothing that would make an
English teacher happy. Despite it all, it is a wonderful work of
writing that creates panic in the reader, we feel what the parents of
the child feel because Wallace never really let's us catch our breath
while reading. At times we are lost in the confusion, not certain
what is going on, but at all times we are desperate, this child is in
pain and we want more than anything else to help quell this child's
tears.
Wallace creates the scene as if intended for a blind man, and the
script is being read to him as the events unfold. Details are missed,
there is too much going on to bother with literary flare, we are
given just enough to visualize the scene. Its straight and to the
point.The point however, is somewhat ambiguous in the end. It sounds
as though the baby lives, “his body extends” and he grows up to
become another person living out his life, waking, going to work,
then sleeping only to repeat his day. The events of the story far
from his mind. The readers however, as well as the Daddy and Mother,
can recall that while young, he faced something terrible. His
parent's will never forget, but that day is far from his mind.
