The American Man at Age ten

James Hungerford
Christy Vance
English 102
February 13, 2011

The American Man at Age ten Response
Susan studies a ten year old boy Colin Duffy. Susan explains what Colin expects and wants from life. Meaning his job and career as a typical ten year old. “Colin is in fifth grade. He is a good student. He plans to go to college, to a place he says is called Oklahoma City State College University”(Orleans 255). This seems like a lot for a ten year old to think about but I agree that it seems to be pretty accurate. I believe kids are growing up faster and faster in America. I like when Susan starts to talk about the boys changing and are starting to like girls or their at least interested in them. “You want to know how to tell if a girl likes you?” Japeth said. “She’ll act really mean to you. That’s a sure sign. I don’t know why they do it, but it’s always a sure sign. It gets your attention”(Orlean 260). I have a little brother that is ten years old and he is going through this stage and I hear him talking with his friends like they do in this essay and it really does make me laugh how accurate it is. There is though a difference in some ten year old boys that don’t have a life like this so there thoughts might be significantly different in there way of thinking due to there environment which Susan does address. “”The rest of the town seems to consist of parks and playing fields and sidewalks and backyards - in other words, it is a far cry from South-Central Los Angeles and from Bedford-Stuyvesant and other, grimmer parts of the country where a very different 10-year-old American man is growing up”(Orlean 255). This shows that she is not bias and understands that this doesn’t apply to everyone but it’s a good average. This story is useful because of the unit 2 paper. It helps me lay out a paper using observation while mixing other peoples conversations into my paper. I don’t think this essay was very clear in what its saying. Susan goes on and on about what a ten year old boy does throughout the day and his dreams and aspirations. The problem is she is talking for all American ten year olds but she only observed one school and it was a private school. I think she should of went to multiple schools in order to make her essay stronger. I also was not to clear on the exact message Susan was trying to express to the reader, she could of made a better conclusion to put out exactly what she was trying to say.