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The Handler Damon Knight Analysis

1103 Words5 Pages

Beauty is the unspoken privilege within humanity. It is a lottery game in which some people do not win, but still try to present themselves as if they did. In Damon Knight's "The Handler", the main character Pete/Harry proves to readers that society only recognizes one for their external attributes rather than internal.

Pete is a big, bronzed, boisterous, confident, but not intelligent man. As he walks into a room, everyone in it hushes and all of their eyes dart for him. He is immediately the center of attention. Pete makes short statements with little depth to them, and the crowd of people cheer/fawn over him while he makes these bland announcements; as confident people make great statements, but never ask non-rhetorical questions. ""We …show more content…

"It was a good show!"" (Knight, pg.45). He proclaims his love and gratitude for everyone that was a part of the show, then suddenly Pete introduces his handler. A little brown man, by the name of Harry, with black hair, stooped shoulders, and sweat dripping down his face, popped out of the back of Pete. The party fell silent. People acknowledged him, but never engaged him like they did Pete. Harry tried to start conversations, but he did so with questions. Harry never made a bold action. He is always timid and insecure about what he is doing. Moreover, the party died. Two men beside him, with their own faults, told him to get back into Pete, and Harry followed accordingly. As soon as Pete came back to life, so did the party. The confident man roared at the people to liven the event, and they did as he said, far into the night. This means that though the people at the party know what is inside of Pete, they choose to ignore it and focus on his looks and feed off of his confidence. They shame Harry for ever wanting to come out and be himself, but the …show more content…

Through this piece one can gain insight on the social, political, and cultural aspects of society, and how not only in Harry's universe do people find this obstacle of beauty, and self-image, a difficult one to overcome. Harry tries to conquer this reality but is forced back inside of Pete to only further the pressure of society's standards upon him. Meaning, in the world today people are pressured to look and act in a certain way, and when those ideals are not met, one is judged for it. Thus, society, as a whole, only sees one's self for their physical

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