Humor In Susan Orlean's The American Male At Age Ten

In Susan Orlean’s “The American Male at Age Ten”, Orlean uses humor in order to show Colin Duffy’s muddled perception of the world due to his existence in between childhood and pre-adulthood. As a ten year old, Colin sort of has an understanding of the world, however he does not yet fully grasp everything. He is in this place where he is trying so hard to be an adult, however his youth and naiveté gets in the way. Orlean expresses this chaotic thought through humor for the duration of her piece. Obviously Colin does not have the same intelligence as Orlean because he is ten and she is an adult, however Orlean does not in any way condescend Colin during her article. When talking about Colin’s academic future, he tells Orlean “he plans to go to college, to a place he says is called Oklahoma City State College University. OCSCU satisfies his desire to live out west, to attend a small college, and to study
As one can imagine, a fifth grade class is a rather hectic environment; “there was a lot of horsing around, but there were also a lot of conversation about whether Magic Johnson had AIDS or just HIV and whether someone falling in a pool of blood from a cut of his would get the disease.” Orlean compares these constant shifts between childish and preadolescent thoughts in the classroom to the funny cliché of “finding a razor blade in a candy apple”. This was a perfect correlation because it completely shows the reader how quick a younger kid is to jump from an immature thought to a more sophisticated one. Any reader can imagine how finding a razor blade in a candy apple would be, so it is a funny, yet accurate, comparison to a ten year-old boy. As a reader, it was very refreshing to read Orlean’s humor throughout “The American Male at Age Ten”. Not only was it entertaining, but also it helped contribute to her overall theme of a ten year-old’s state between immature and mature