Hello everyone! For October's post we have an short story analytical essay. Please note that the essay does cover topics on pedophilia and sexual assault.
A staggering 10,000,000 children are victims of child trafficking globally, with 51% of those cases trafficked for sex (Liberate Children Organization). Samanta Schweblin is able to give the audience the perspective of child that could become one of the millions of children within trafficking schemes. Schweblin grippingly illustrates the story revolving around a young girl and the dangerous (unknowingly to her) man, who both quickly become friends. The audience can intently read how a bond and trust can so easily be fabricated and manipulated. In “An Unlucky Man,” Samanta Schweblin argues that children are vulnerable and can be easily manipulated. She illustrates how a lack of attention, whether intentional or not, can allow for the desire for attention from others to grow, thus making them targets for predators.
Children lack emotional maturity and are often unable to fully understand the same amount of information as an adult; if they feel as though they aren’t getting enough attention, it can result in attention-seeking from others. On the main character’s birthday, her sister Abi drinks a cup of bleach and the family panics and tries to rush to the hospital. As the family is leaving the house there is much chaos and Schweblin writes, “Dad had to shout at me twice before I understood that I was the one who was supposed to close up… ‘Take off your underpants.’ … I looked at mom and she shouted: ‘Take off your damned underpants!’” (Schweblin 286). The girl holds resentment towards her parents for first giving attention to Abi and embarrassing her in front of what seems to be the entire neighbourhood. With both having been yelled at and also made to take off her underpants, Schweblin describes what the girl had to go through on her own birthday using multiple examples. She first states that she was “shout[ed]” at, and then was told twice to “take off” her “underpants.” Her feelings of neglect go away once she talks to the Unlucky Man. When she tells him what has been happening, he says “‘It’s not fair. A person can’t just go around without underpants when it’s their birthday.’ ‘I know,’ I said emphatically, because now I understood just how Abi’s whole display was a personal affront to me” (Schweblin 289). Here the girl realises that everything her sister did was to make everything about her. Schweblin makes the man seem sympathetic by telling her it’s “not fair,” and allows the audience to see how she enjoys the new attention when she replies “‘I know.’” Schweblin also adds that the girl just now considers that what Abi did was “personal” and was intent on insulting her and ruining her day. Her feelings of neglect are now exacerbated even if they are irrational. However, the audience actually knows that her parents were not neglecting her and just trying to save Abi.
At a young age, children do not hold any power or authority so are highly vulnerable to adults. Thus, it can take very little convincing or manipulation to make a child trust or believe an adult. After the main character and the Unlucky Man conversed for a short amount of time, she felt as though that was enough to trust him. As the two leave the hospital to get underwear, the man spares the main character from a moment of embarrassment and Schweblin writes, “... he opened the door and winked at me, and then I knew I could trust him” (Schweblin 289). Here the audience can see how quickly the character can feel trust. Schweblin uses intentional language from the girl's perspective, and how she “knew” she could “trust” him. Additionally, Schweblin states that the man “wink[ed]” at the girl, a typically intimate gesture. The signal to the girl makes her feel as though their relationship is close. When at the clothing store, the man says, “But we have to find better ones. We need to be sure’... he held out two closed fists… I touched the other [fist]. It took me a moment to realize it was a pair of underpants, because I had never seen black ones before” (Scweblin 290-291). By using the word “we,” the man implies that they both will choose the underwear together, but is a way of making himself involved in the decision. Also, by allowing her “touch” a fist that has the underwear in it, he gives her the illusion that he lets her make a decision instead of just handing her a pair to put on. The audience can see how the character's “trust” for the man is beneficial for their power dynamic as well, which the man clearly understands and uses to his advantage. Schweblin notes that the underwear he gives her are specifically “black” ones. Black underwear is used to symbolise that girls are sexually active and impure, which gives the audience a window into the man’s present and future intentions. As a young child, the girl does not know that the seemingly innocent pair of underwear is a way of marking her and sees no problem, and wears them until they get back to the hospital.
Comments