David Foster Wallace's Incarnations Of Burned Children

David Foster Wallace’s short story Incarnations of Burned Children describes the scene of a child being burned alive with boiling water that was incidentally dropped by his mother. The mother and father are referred to as “Mommy” and “Daddy”, and the sentences run on time and time again. This gives the idea of a child-like narrator, and increases the sense of innocence that is so often correlated with children. Strongly emotional, it shows the reactions of the mother and father to a drastic event, and the ongoing agonizing screams of the afflicted child. In the end, I personally don’t know for sure what happened, but it appears that the story suggests the child died on the way to the emergency room. A very emotional, depressing piece, this piece appears to present no true

That letter is written to the reader specifically and criticizes the methods of story writing that is so often done. The first short story is very plain and simple, with minimal detail and overall a positive scene. Yet, the diction proves it hard to truly feel any positivity from it. The second is a story of abuse and death, yet ends very similarly to story A. Story C is more complex, detailed, and dramatic, eventually ending with killing and suicide over broken love, yet still ends essentially the same as story A and B. Story D continues off of C; it presents a tsunami hitting the main characters, real estate values going down, and finally how thousands died but It’s okay because the two main characters sit and kiss on high ground, proceeding then to repeat story A. E and F are simply absurdity. Far too much effort is put into the end of a story, when in fact it is the beginning and the story that matters, Margaret argues. Too much effort, also, is put into the “what” of a situation and story. Instead, she requests to “Now try How and