End of the Line and Ironhead

This week we read short stories written by author Aimee Bender. She is an intelligent writer who certainly knows how to pull on the reader's heartstrings and suck them into the story. In this case she draws the readers into End of the Line and Ironhead by creating main protaganists who are just similar enough to make the reader feel sorry for them both. In End of the Line, the little man is physically trapped in a bad situation, tortured by the big man and unable to leave the cage to get out of the house. The little ironhead boy is also trapped, not just physically but also mentally. He is physically trapped because he is a child and mentally because he cannot connect with the rest of his family. His family, a group that is already ostracized to an extent, is still more excepted than he is. Having an iron as a head really pushes him into a new cage, one where the only escape seems to be death.
The two characters are very similar in their plights of confinement, so much so that the reader cannot help but make comparisons between them. Aimee Bender does a good job creating fantastical but believable characters who allow the reader to step into the story and walk within the pages.