Response to David Foster Wallace's Incarnations of Burned Children

     This story is about a baby who is burned by a pot of boiling water that falls off the stove while the father is busy hanging up a door and the mother is somewhere not paying attention. Both the mother and father scramble to help the baby by putting him in the sink in attempts to cool him off, but what they fail to realize is that the whole time the baby's diaper has held the remaining hot water. They rush him to the ER where the reader is left to decide whether the child dies, or if he is reincarnated or etc. 

     This is the second time that I've read this story and every time I read it, I always wish the parents had noticed the diaper quicker instead of trying to calm the situation themselves. I always think that in that situation, wouldn't that be the first thing they'd take off considering a pot fell from up high? But nevertheless this is a very well-written story. I think having characters without specific names makes the situation more horrific and builds a serious tension, especially considering the father plays a big of the blame game with the mother. The story is told more so from his perspective which also works, and makes the reader wonder what exactly the mother was doing that she wasn't paying close enough attention. However, accidents like that happen everyday and I think that Wallace did a great job taking something as horrific as that and wrote a short story about it. He captured the fears of every parent I think while also the emotions of whom to blame in the situation. 

      This story is hard to forget and I think that's another thing that makes it work so well. The details are so gruesome and not to mention so easily possible, that it makes us rethink those times we left water on the stove, or possibly those times when we were young ourselves and how we came so close to being hurt that way. The ending is also a cliffhanger leaving us with questions of, did the boy die, did he live, does it matter? I think Wallace proved his point well with this story. In situations such as these, which are common, it's easy to play the blame game as well as feel guilt, especially if the outcome is deadly.