The allegorical components to Paul Bowles’ "Pages from Cold Point" involve Charley, the fat man and Racky, the little boy. Charley hovers through the story even though largely absent from it, as he had an influence that colors the father’s character. The father notes that Charley in his youth “looked not unlike the way Racky does” (87), which may mean that Charley serves as a proxy connecting past memory and Racky's development from childhood to maturity. The 1st person narration coming through the father is peculiar in its restraint and indications of withheld information (what provokes Charley’s “D’ye think I’ve forgotten?” (88) - sexual abuse, probably), and makes sense in the context of themes we discuss regarding containment, which includes fear of [nuclear] proliferation. It’s also curious that there’s a certain lack of reliability of such a “narrow channel of communication” (to borrow from the Hales piece).
The father’s little boy is 16, and does whatever he wants, as an uninvited imposition does. He’s described to be “the soul of discretion and it is almost never possible to know any more about what goes on inside his head than he intends one to know” (88). Little Boy, the ballistic, is also more than just its material properties, also holding the potential for immeasurable impact. It’s hard to tell where Racky will end up by the story’s end, but he seems to have been deployed to Havana and awaits a trust fund from dead Hope. I wonder why Bowles wrote this, and punctuates it in such a way: “I am perfectly happy here in reality” (106), though this reality is within the confines of someone who skirts around the issues of sexual abuse, child abuse, and incest - arguably, the greatest violences committed to universal law, or the three Worst Things Ever. Psychological literature I've read describes that sociopaths believe they are doing good, as if there is no question in the sociopath's mind that their actions are just. It reminds me of every criminal who determines their target, and then masking their actions with the socially acceptable response of claiming benevolent intent.
The father’s little boy is 16, and does whatever he wants, as an uninvited imposition does. He’s described to be “the soul of discretion and it is almost never possible to know any more about what goes on inside his head than he intends one to know” (88). Little Boy, the ballistic, is also more than just its material properties, also holding the potential for immeasurable impact. It’s hard to tell where Racky will end up by the story’s end, but he seems to have been deployed to Havana and awaits a trust fund from dead Hope. I wonder why Bowles wrote this, and punctuates it in such a way: “I am perfectly happy here in reality” (106), though this reality is within the confines of someone who skirts around the issues of sexual abuse, child abuse, and incest - arguably, the greatest violences committed to universal law, or the three Worst Things Ever. Psychological literature I've read describes that sociopaths believe they are doing good, as if there is no question in the sociopath's mind that their actions are just. It reminds me of every criminal who determines their target, and then masking their actions with the socially acceptable response of claiming benevolent intent.
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