The Stone Boy Analysis

In the short story, the plot events are an exploration of the title “The Stone Boy” written by Gina Berriault where it shows how the characters dealt with their emotions, specifically Arnold, who is known as the “stone boy”. Arnold is a nine-year-old boy and the youngest of his other two siblings, Nora and Eugie. Throughout the story, Arnold felt inferior towards Eugie, yet simultaneously admiring him as his role model. Then, one unexpected morning an abominable accident occurred. The event occurred when Arnold and Eugie decided to pick peas. “Get up,” Arnold repeated. “You said you’d pick peas with me” (p.2). As they went to pick peas, Arnold carried along a firearm with him that he uses for shooting ducks. However, when they went out to pick

Well, the reason Arnold acted like a stone boy is that he suffered immensely from deep shock and psychological trauma where he showed no emotion during and after the accident. As mentioned before, Arnold struggles to comprehend and process the situation he was in. He was in a state of shocked that it caused him to get in an emotional detachment and traumatized causing him to deny what happened. Additionally, another reason Arnold is viewed as the stone boy is that he displayed zero emotion or reaction when he accidentally killed his brother. “Not a tear in his eye,” said Andy… (p.7). This likewise occurred during the interrogation when they at the police station. Every time Arnold was queried, his responses were blunt and short which again shows very little emotions. Therefore, the sheriff concluded that Arnold did not feel anything about Eugie’s death. Furthermore, Arnold’s family had become distant from him, therefore he has no reason to show his emotions anymore, however, when he finally attempted to show and discuss his feeling about the situation to his mother, she rejected him. “Go back! Is night when you get afraid?” (p.8). After that, Arnold realized that his mother would not look at him the same way again, nor even accept him. So, by the next morning when his mother queried him if he wanted anything, all his response was, “I didn’t want nothing” (p.8). As a result, this made Arnold have difficulties opening up