Capturing the American Boy

My nephews, Andrew, 9, and Alex, 8, refuse to take normal photographs.

In April, my nephew Alex and one of his friends went missing for a couple of hours. As he does not live in the best neighborhood in Kansas City and was 7 years old at the time, my family was frantic. As dusk neared, nearly 100 people as well as the police were searching for them. Suddenly the two boys came walking up the street. According to Alex’s friend, who was roughly the same age, a man in a big black car picked them up, drove around for a few hours and dropped them back off at home. When the police asked Alex what happened, he excitedly explained that they had followed a raccoon into the nearby woods and froze like statues every time he stopped so he wouldn’t see them!

As I read Susan Orlean’s “The American Male at Age Ten,” I could not help but think of spending time with my two nephews. Andrew is almost 10 and Alex just turned 8, so they are at the same stage of life as Colin Duffy, Orlean’s subject. When Colin speaks, I actually hear my nephews’ voices, and I see them doing many of the same activities as he. This is the basis for why I believe “The American Male at Age Ten” is such a good story. Most people know or have known a boy around the age of 10, and Orlean’s details are uncanny. From his clothing to his bedroom to his future goals, we can picture Colin standing in front of us; or, more accurately, we can think of someone in particular who channels Colin’s spirit. I have had conversations with my nephews about girls that were exact imitations of Orlean’s talk with Colin and Japeth.

Based on the popular culture references, we can tell that this story was written several years ago; this means that Colin’s fashion sense and video game interests, for example, are out of date. What makes this story good, though, are not the exact pop culture references, but the spirit of the 10-year-old boy that these references reflect and that still echoes in today’s boys. So often we read about extreme children that rest on either side of a behavior spectrum. Either they are the angel children of the 1950s or the rotten kids of today. It is refreshing to read a piece about a boy who, though maybe slightly naïve, is real—so real that we may know kids like him.

Orlean approaches this story from two different angles: as the interviewer and as the invisible fly on the wall. Though she does ask questions and receives wonderful responses, many of the details and quotes come from quiet observation. Clearly, this technique works well for her and could be a valuable resource for me in the future. It is this candid realism that I like best about this story. Much of what I like to read looks at the world realistically, simply observing what is going on. In fact, though I am not a parent and certainly not a new dad, I enjoy reading my cousin’s husband’s blog about fatherhood. On noodad.com, Greg tries to help other fathers of young children with genuine, funny and frank posts.

 

I appreciate “The American Male at Age Ten” mostly because of its connection to my nephews; I know it must have taken eternal patience to hang out with Colin Duffy. This is also, however, how I knew it was a wonderful story. In illustrating Colin, Orlean was able to tell the story of countless young American boys.