38. Concentrating on Eddie
An important question for parents is: What determines a young person's direction of life?
Let us look at Eddie as an example: In Eddie's case his character will be determined mostly by his living place and his parents. The stability of a child's living place is very important in forging his character. So far - in 1947 - Eddie has lived in the same north-central Bronx apartment for 11 years. It makes for a stability of his mental attitudes; he is not easily swayed by the crowd or the trend. And his sense of what is good in one's particular surroundings has been influenced by the physical appearance of his rooms. This is his mother's influence.
She is cold but not uncaring. He never recalls her kissing or hugging or hitting him. Her actions are for teaching.
Here is a scene from his sitting at kitchen table for breakfast:
His mother says "Wheat germ is good for you." She sprinkles the wheat germ on his corn flakes.
Already at age 14 Eddie is health-oriented thanks to his mother.
When he makes her angry she will cry out "You lousy, Kid!" but leave him alone. Her policy is non interference physically.
Sexually the most important event happens one afternoon: Here is Eddie in his room lying across the bed, his pants down, actively masturbating, thinking about his favorite - Miss Logan the chemistry teacher who started his good marks in school - Miss Logan keeping him after school and her up on a stepladder arranging books and Eddie just below her for help but putting his hand up her dress and she smiling down. "I'm in love with you, Miss Logan," he hears himself saying.
Unexpectedly the bedroom door opens: it is his mother. She stands there for a few seconds; then, without a word, withdraws and closes the door. Later, she does not say a word. It is an example of her non-interference; it helps Eddie's relaxed, non shamed attitude toward masturbation, a useful plus in his life.
His father is away at office Mondays to Saturdays. In contrast to the Mother, the Father is emotionally expressive. But he leaves child care to the mother.
That he actively thinks to influence Eddie's future can be seen on Eddie's 10th birthday when the father brings home a Gilbert's Chemistry Set. No other father of the boys in the neighborhood gets his son a chemistry set and no other boy gets interested in science and becomes a wiz at high school chemistry. And Eddie comes to be called the Brain by his gang.
In 1944, the Father takes Eddie downtown to see the two movies. One is The Adventures of Mark Twain, about a writer that Eddie's father grew up reading, and the other is Mrs. Skeffington, which is a story of a vain woman who keeps herself young and sexually active into old age. For Eddie, later, the idea of being a writer, from the one movie, and the interest in prolonging of youth into old age, from the other movie, will be keys in his life.
Then there is Eddie's 13-year-older brother Allen. He is almost an older generation and in 1941 he leaves for the War and returning in 1946 immediately marries and lives away. But his books that Eddie comes across - HG Wells's The Outline of History; the Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter of Mars series, a set of Hemingway's stories & novels and other classics - will influence Eddie's life.
These are samples of the affect of a good home environment on a child. They are based on an actual life lived and should be a source of creative ideas for new or soon-to-be parents.
Continue next, click 13.39. Seminar - Creative Writing
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