“The Man-Child” was definitely a traumatizing read and I spent a few shocked moments after finishing it trying to process what just happened and… why? I guess I knew something was going to go wrong in the story, but I admit I did not see the cold-blooded murder of a child coming. Like at all. Looking back on it, it’s hard for me to pin down exactly why Jamie would do such a thing, and I think this highlights just how little we really understand any of the characters in the story, besides the one our narrator is aligned with, Eric. The relationship between his mother and Jamie is really ambiguous and confusing and I don't understand it at all. His father seems like a decent guy when he’s showing Eric around the countryside, but he’s described at the beginning as “big, laughing, dreadful, and red,” and it is also mentioned that he “captured” his wife, who has remained in metaphorical chains ever since (Baldwin 61). I think part of this is because getting the story through the eyes of a child limits our ability to follow everything that is going on between the other characters, as seen when Eric’s discomfort over things such as the sun or the position he’s sitting in, take over the narration as opposed to the dialogue between his father and Jamie. “He did not understand what they were talking about this afternoon, these grown-ups he had known all his life; by keeping his eyes closed he kept their conversation far from him” (Baldwin 69). On the other hand, Eric's youth makes him more sensitive to his mother's reactions and as a result we are more aware of the tension in the room even if we miss some of the conversation. It was clear to me that something was off throughout this story, however, it was hard to tell which character was more suspicious or to really relate to any of them. They are all pretty mysterious in a way.
While it’s hard to even imagine what would cause Jamie to kill the child of his friend, it is important to look at some of the reasons why he might have convinced himself to do such an unspeakable thing, if not only for the purpose of calming my utterly bewildered mind. The only part of the story that really shows us Jamie’s character and sheds light on his motivation for killing Eric is the conversation with Eric’s parents at his birthday dinner. While Jamie is supposedly their friend, he is frequently made fun of for not having a wife, kids, or land, such that there is definitely a feeling of superiority around the father. While Jamie claims to “know all the things [he] has to thank [Eric’s father] for,” the scene is full of tension and resentment from Jamie (Baldwin 68). It makes sense for Jamie to be jealous of the father’s success compared to his own, and of the fact that the father’s line will continue and pass on to future generations, while Jamie has no land of his own and relies on this family.Yet this doesn’t make sense as a reason to kill Eric because doing so does not mean Jamie will get the land nor does it do anything to improve Jamie’s current situation. I think he does it instead to spite Eric’s father and stop his sense of superiority and dreams for the future. The mother asks Jamie why it is he stays in town with them when he had the chance of moving away, and Jamie replies that everything he cares about is here, however Jamie seems to be realizing that he isn’t cared for by this family particularly well, nor does he care very deeply for anyone there anymore. (BUT the friendship between the father and Jamie is described as pretty intense at the beginning--they've been through a lot together, but I guess things change)
“‘A man’s not supposed to sit around and mope,’ said Eric’s father, wrathfully, ‘for things that are over and dead and finished, things that can’t ever begin again, that can’t ever be the same again. That’s what I mean when I say you’re a dreamer--and if you hadn’t kept on dreaming so long, you might not be alone now.’” This has got to be hard to hear from a friend, and Jamie’s response shows that while he is (for the moment) pretending to be civil, he is doubting his interest and care in this friendship. “‘Ah well,’ said Jamie, mildly, and with a curious rush of affection in his voice, ‘I know you’re the giant-killer, the hunter, the lover--the real old Adam, that’s you. I know you’re going to cover the earth. I know the world depends on you’” (Baldwin 68). Despite the “affection” in his voice, I have no trouble visualizing a fuming Jamie with a voice and head full of contempt as this man who took over his land tries to lecture him on everything he's doing wrong. I think by this point a part of Jamie has snapped and he starts to think of ways to ruin things for the father. His line “I know the world depends on you,” followed immediately by a discussion of Eric himself and what makes him similar to his father, almost foreshadows what is to come. The terrifying thing about Jamie is that he has nothing to gain from this murder. He says he doesn’t want the land, he doesn’t take up Eric’s offer to be his little boy, he doesn’t kill the father. I think this is because Jamie feels beaten down by the father and instead of ending his life, would rather ruin everything he had that was held above Jamie’s head. I think Jamie must be a little unstable/crazy to begin with, but I think this moment with Eric’s parents is where it dawns on him that maybe it’s time to leave and get out of town, that there’s not much for him here anymore.
Side note: The biggest question I actually had coming away from this story was what is up with the mother? She seems to be the most suspicious of Jamie, such that her behavior changes after returning home, “as though she had been startled by some new aspect of something she had always known” (Baldwin 76). So what startled her about Jamie? The fact that she can have no more children has probably changed the way she sees him, but the way the text emphasizes her change almost implies Jamie is at fault for something. But unless the child was his, which doesn’t make much sense to me, what could he have done? I keep thinking maybe there was some sort of affair between the mother and Jamie, since we know her relationship with her husband is a little weird from that beginning description, but I'm not really convinced and nothing in the plot is really clarified by this so I kind of doubt it... Anyway, there’s a lot of suspicion and distrust in this story and it certainly makes for an unnerving read.
