Response to "Incarnations of Burned Children"

        David Foster Wallace’s story, “Incarnations of Burned Children” is about parenthood. The story shows the guilt the parents feel, in particular the father, for letting their infant son get hurt. I assume the mother dropped a boiling pot of water on him.
    I’ve read this story before and the both times I’ve been amazed by Wallace’s writing style. It’s one of those stories that are difficult to critique simply because of its ingeniousness. The tone is super urgent, while at the same time distanced from the characters; the speaker kind of allows us to feel the severe pain of both the burned child and the father, while stepping outside of the scene at times- describing the bird cocking it’s head, the mention of the father needing a cigarette. The central theme I feel is removing yourself from yourself. The story and descriptions are so in and out. For instance, “. . the Daddy moving quickly and well and his man’s mind empty of everything but purpose, not yet aware of how smoothly he moved or that he’d ceased to hear the high screams because to hear them would freeze him and make impossible what had be done to help his child. .” Using “his man’s mind” is such an ambiguous expression. It’s a unique way of showing the severity of the situation and the effect it has on the father is that he can’t even be a father during this time. To be a father would freeze him, he couldn’t do what needed to be done. He has to separate himself from the situation to save his child. Which is so ironic, because we think of a father doing everything in his power to save his child, but here the fatherly emotion has to be separated from the man.
    It is a complex story and I think it can be interpreted in a number of ways. I think that’s probably what Wallace was aiming for. I think the ending is especially ambiguous. I feel like the child actually died by the end, but I’m not entirely sure. There were subtle hints of it being “too late” and realizing things too late" that are weaved within the story. Urgency meshed with hopelessness. The sentence structure is convoluted, however it functions nicely and adds to the tone of the story, inside a mind observing frantic parents trying to save their infant. However, who is the narrator? We don’t know but we are given these inside details. The voice and point of view is the most interesting because it’s not from either of the parents but the speaker is somehow immersed in the up and down emotion of the story.
    I also liked the descriptions of the parents freezing up if they actually let their minds venture to the reality of what’s happened. It’s nicely juxtaposed with the burned, steaming child.