Aimee Bender

When thinking of Aimee Bender's novel "Willful Creatures" I think of her stories as being 'parables for adults.' Each story she writes offers a moral, a purpose or a meaningful message while containing some sort of strange or twisted element.

Aimee Bender's story "Iron head" offers a message of tolerance and acceptance while remaining absurd and strange. The character of the iron head boy has an iron for a head and is born into pumpkin headed family. He is unable to sleep and is very tired because of the shape, size and weight of his head. This is obviously the absurd element of her story.

Iron head's physical differences make iron head an outcast. He is made fun of and outcasted by his siblings and members of society. For example, a cop even makes fun of the iron head boy rather than being kind as he should be. The iron head boy ends p with severe depression and exhaustion and ends up dying at the innocent age of 4.

Aimee Bender writes this story in order to teach her audience to be accepting of other's differences whether or not you're okay with them. It is important to be tolerant because of the the extreme negative effects intolerance may have

angela feeney post # 7