"Suicide As a Sort of Present"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the satirical short story "Suicide As a Sort of Present" by David Foster Wallace which focuses on the interactions between a mother and her child who are born into roles of perfection and fallibility. These roles, chains imposed upon our main characters, are in direct contrast to each character's true soul. It examines how the result of each character's internal struggle against their roles, coupled with the conflict between mother and child, result in the suicide of a child and the emotional and societal destruction of the mother's identity.

From the Paper:

"The child, likewise, has an external persona. He is viewed as unruly and ungrateful for his mother's love. He acts out; causes mischief, but why? Because, the child is just that, a child, and he is being mothered by a woman who he can sense despises him for his behavior. Bereft of a mother's love, the one thing the child craves, he ends his life. In that act, he ends both he and his mother's life. He has at this point killed himself and murdered his mother's societal identity. The perfect kid, the perfect mother now has a son who was obviously unhappy and felt unloved. She can no longer appear infallible. Thus, both internal conflicts of both characters eventually spiral out and the external conflict between mother and child is resolved when they destroy each other."

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