The Clairvoyance of a Child
Throughout the book we’ve seen various moments where the little boy seems to be able to see the future or control the story. The first of such events being when he is thinking of Harry Houdini and then Houdini suddenly appears. But he also has moments where he “senses” something or can seemingly see into the future. The question is, why did Doctorow put this into the story? I know, its postmodernism so there doesn’t really have to be a reason for it to be there, but there’s still probably some meaning behind it. We’ve talked some in class about how Doctorow seems to like the children in the story more, or how the narrator seems more closely aligned with them. Maybe this is just another manifestation of that. Perhaps Doctorow likes the little boy more than the other characters, and because of that he gives him special powers or grants his imaginary wishes. It sounds kind of crazy but hear me out. If you look at the characters as having a mind of their own, which seems like a very postm...