Jim Hanas 'You Can Touch This'

Jim Hanas You Can Touch This is a very symbolic short story that depicts the meaning of judgment in society. This story presents a play center for children named You Can Touch This. Normally children are always told ‘Don’t touch this’ or ‘Don’t touch that’ or even “Once we get in the store please do not touch anything,” but in this fun place, made only for kids, the children can be doctors, they can go shopping, they can do things they wouldn’t normally do in reality. After analyzing You Can Touch This it becomes clear that discrimination and judgment take major roles within this short story to portray a theme of how these traits can be bad for the society.
Within this play center there are professions usually adults have and which children’s
The ladies inform him that he must not let the children know why he is dressed in a peculiar way. They directed him to say that he was a zombie. Apparently the ladies know that Steven’s clothing, hair, and nail color is not something that the parents would accept. During the puppet show a little boy asked Steven what was his character, or who was he pretending to be for the day. Steven told the little guy that his character was known as a zombie. Bringing light to this small symbol zombies are usually dead dark creatures who vest on the lives of other individuals. Referencing the way that Steven looks to the looks of a zombie is symbolic considering that Steven is quiet and unseen, wears dark clothing, and doesn’t put much effort into living for a main purpose. He is camouflaged and outcast just like zombies he is scary and his mother didn’t approve. . Steven was dressed up in his regular everyday outfit, but the little boy accepted him and thought that being a zombie was great. Society tends to label individuals according to their appearances and wardrobe. Discriminating and judging another individual because of their clothing or the way they are is something that should be frowned upon, instead it is enlightened and even children do it. It is clear that the society that this short story takes place in the people that inhabit it are against the lifestyle that Steven has because he must lie about his clothing and base it on a costume. It is not right for him to cover up who he truly is just to satisfy the thought of