Re: I'm still here
Bethany M. Edstrom (Bethany.M.Edstrom@Dartmouth.EDU)
Sun, 18 Jan 1998 16:31:28 -0500 (EST)
--- You wrote:
I think that it is in fact adults who are the infiltrators, children know
what it's really all about.
--- end of quoted material ---
I see your point, but I think mine is still valid, especially with regard to
the Laughing Man and who he is. He is deformed beyond recognition and lives
with the people who intentionally did this to him. And the result of this
deformity is that he appears to laugh at the world. I can't get past that line
where the narrator says he had to stifle his own "natural hideous
laughter"--it's such a loaded, enigmatic line.
But the laughing man, because of who he is, what he does, and what he looks
like, is an infiltrator. The child in the story says he identifies with the
Laughing Man; therefore, in some way, he must see himself as an infiltrator.
Now it's up to us to figure out how...
Bethany