“The American Male at Age Ten” by Susan Orlean- Discussion Questions

1. What is the significance of the story? How does the writer show that the subject’s story is bigger and more important than the experience of one person (or place)? The story, at surface level, seems to be just observations about a young suburban boy and his daily routine and general thoughts on life.

Though seemingly a very simple and rather bland subject, the article delves deeper into the psyche of boys this age and how it affects them for the rest of their lives. She goes very in depth in trying to understand just exactly what goes through this boys’ mind, and what societal standards and pop culture may be doing to influence him and other kids his age. It’s a psychological study more than anything, and seeks to understand the deeper meaning of how and why boys of this age are influenced by American culture, and what this means on a deeper level, and how it affects their lives and other’s lives.

2. To what extent does the writer insert him / herself into the narrative? How does that affect the article’s objectivity? How does it affect the article's transparency?

She inserts herself quite a bit into the story, being quite transparent about how and why she went about her process of finding information and evidence for her article, and often dipping into first person to express her opinion on something. She inserts herself into the story and discusses the way that Colin, the main character of the story, interacts with her as an older woman. This is an important part of the story, and if she was an omniscient narrator, it wouldn’t have given the reader that extra perspective that she is trying to convey. Her being a part of the story was really important in helping the reader understand the greater message of the piece, because with only omniscient observations it might have seemed almost pointless, but she really drives home her points by giving outside evidence and opinions.

3. How does the writer veer away from traditional newswriting? In other words, how does the reporter put into practice the advice that Hawthorne offered in our reading from last class. Find examples of literary devices (metaphors, similes, imagery, symbolism).

The main strategy she employed in her article was using a central character to base her story on, instead of just presenting studies and evidence, which made the story far more captivating and really drew the reader in more, as if they were reading a short story. In doing this, she also paints quite vivid pictures and uses imagery to her advantage, allowing the reader to feel like we’re the ones talking to and hanging out with the humorous Colin and his friends in suburban New Jersey. The use of humour and irony in the piece made it extremely entertaining, and allowed the reader to become compelled and amused.

4. How did the writer report this story? How many sources were used? How much time seems to have spent in the reporting process? How much of the article do you think was based on interviews? How much on the reporters direct observation?

In putting together this article, Orlean used many different strategies for obtaining information, using a combination of observational evidence, interviews, and a few outside sources and studies. She mainly focused on the interview, adding in tid-bits of observation which gave context and helped explain her points. She seemed to go very in depth into really understanding Colin by spending a lot of time with him, his family, and his friends and acquaintances. She seemed to really be attempting to understand exactly what it’s like to live in his world, in order to analyze his frame of mind more accurately.

5. Find three particularly powerful quotes. Infer: What questions do you think the reporter would have asked in order to get these responses?
- “Girls are different. Girls are stupid and weird.”
- “The most beautiful woman in the world is not Madonna! Only Wayne and Garth think that! She looks like maybe a… a ... slut or something. Cindy Crawford looks like she would look good, but if you see her on an awards program on TV she doesn't look that good. I think the most beautiful woman in the world probably is my mom."
- “'The best thing is that grown-ups can go wherever they want… If you're grownup, you’d have a car, and whenever you felt like it, you could get into your car and drive somewhere and get candy."

 Orlean actually uses a very interesting strategy, by often stating exactly what question she asked Colin and what his response was. I think she did this to help the reader understand exactly what goes through a boy of this age’s head when asked about certain subjects, and what his thought process may have been. Also, most of her questions were pretty direct and simple, given that her interviewee was 10 years old, but she goes more in depth in her analysis to drive her points home. Her questions, though simple on the surface, often times were searching for a deeper meaning. Her asking what he thought of girls, for example, was her trying to find evidence of potential engrained sexism or issues with women that may be beginning to blossom in boys of this age.