Who is the man child in "The Man Child"? We have two candidates: Jamie and Eric. Jamie fits the traditional definition of an adult male that acts and thinks immaturely while Eric is a child whose awareness of the world (or at least his world) is well beyond his age. There can only be one man child, otherwise Baldwin would've titled the story "The Man Children," right? Okay, maybe he didn't because that sounds kind of awkward. Nevertheless, there are two distinct scenes in the book where each candidate makes a strong claim as the title character.
"Ah, the lord, the master of this house arrives! And bears on his shoulders the prince, the son, and heir! My lords! Behold your humble, most properly chastised servant, desirous of your compassion, your love, and your forgiveness!"
This is the snippet from the birthday scene where Jamie's built-up resentment toward Eric's father is painted very clearly. Eric's father has everything Jamie doesn't--land, a wife, and a child. As Eric's father's best friend, Jamie is not only constantly reminded of this but also the debt he owes Eric's father. Jamie was given money for his poor land and pretty much lives as part of Eric's family. Both Eric's father and mother push Jamie to start a life of his own (move away, remarry, etc.) yet he shrugs off the necessity like a college kid refusing to stop living off his parents. Despite owing Eric's father from becoming homeless, Jamie displays no gratitude other than empty words. Instead using this second chance at life to work at getting what Eric's father has, Jamie spends most of his time drunk and resenting him for having it.
"Why do you hate my father?""I love your father."
"Jamie, you can have the land. You can have all the land."
"I don't want the land."
"If you kill my father I can be your little boy and we can have it all!"
"This land will belong to no one."
This is the back-and-forth between Eric and Jamie during the strangulation scene that serves as the jarring ending to the story. Eric's awareness in this situation is very striking. Not only does he immediately try to leave--sensing the danger as Jamie closes the barn door--he doesn't reduce to crying like most other 8-year-olds would. Though he's understandably panicking as Jamie's hands tighten around his throat, he doesn't give up on his life. On the surface, you could see these statements as desperation attempts to stay alive but it's really evidence that Eric knows Jamie's motives.
I like the idea that the title can refer to both Jamie and Eric but I can't shake the sense that Baldwin purposely left it singular to allude to only one of them. What do you think?
I think that Eric and Jamie both encompass different aspects of what "man child" means. However, if there can only be one, I think that Jamie is more of a stereotypical man child ( using the definition that a man child is a man that acts like a child) I believe that Jamie is acting like a child when he doesn't take control of his own life and instead tries to take over Eric's father's. I think that if he was really disappointed by the fact that he lost his land and that he has no family, he should work towards making his life better instead of finding a way to take happiness away from someone he calls a friend.
ReplyDeleteThe title could be left singular to inspire exactly the line of interpretation you pursue here: there are at least two possible candidates, but the "The" in the title leads us to think about whom the title must be referring to. That ending scene is brutal for a number of reasons, but the part where Eric seems to get what Jamie is thinking, and even offers to become a kind of surrogate son to him, and to kill his own father, is for me the most disturbing part. It doesn't fit with anything we've seen from Eric thus far, Maybe it has something to do with a simple desperation to live, but he seems to have such a specific idea about how to placate Jamie, I don't know. In light of the title, it does seem like he's offering to "promote" Jamie from man-child to owner/father.
ReplyDeleteI don' t think the man child has to necessarily pertain to only Jamie or only Eric. I totally agree with the points you made about both, but I wanted to add on and say that I think saying they are both some derivation of man-child makes sense. We see Jamie being kid like and not restraining his emotions, and we see Eric-- who is a child-- being very restrained and acting like a man. I think this creates an interesting dynamic between Jamie and Eric. In this dynamic Eric is very much higher than Jamie. Jamie is a grown man who should be acting like an adult, but instead acts like a child. And then there is Eric who acts like an adult in both a cute and pride inducing manor. Like you said in your post it's impressive how Eric handles his last moments in the barn, and it is quite a contrast from Jamie's ornery attitude with Eric's father. I don't mean to say that what Jamie did in the end of this story is just ( or expected), but this man-acting-like-child vs. child-acting-like-man sets up a narrative of disagreement and anger. The fact that they are so opposite and yet have the similar goal seems to set the stage fro conflict.
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