Incarnations of Burned Children

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Incarnations of Burned Children As a helpless young child, a single accident can have a life long impact. In David Foster Wallace’s, “Incarnations of Burned Children,” has theme and meaning, and describes a terrible accident that could happen to any young family. This tragedy could affect this young child for life, in more ways than one. The pain from this accident could make this child, shut himself out from many things throughout his life. The burns could possibly still be seen one later in life, their personal space could also still be effected, this causing relationship issues for the child later in life, and it could make the child feel different from the rest of the world. Though the person couldn’t remember the actual pain of getting burned; the emotional pain of feeling different and shutting himself out later in life would be real for them everyday. Wallace writes about a pain that is so real; we feel the parents’ and child’s pain. He places the father away from the accident, but still close enough to hear it. This adds to the story because he knows it was not his fault, but more his wife’s, still he will still hold himself partly responsible for the rest of his life. Wallace uses ideas that are, out of the box, and most people would seem to never think of, to add a twist to the story. Like in this story, the diaper that neither the mother nor father thinks about removing, because they don’t realize it’s still burning the child. Wallace uses great detail in describing certain aspects of the situation in the story. He doesn’t just write how the puddle of water was still hot; instead, he writes “the overturned pot on the floortile before the stove and the burner's blue jet and the floor's pool of water still steaming as its many arms extended.” This not only describes the scenario, but also allows the reader to picture it in their mind the way Wallace
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