They’re Just so Lonely

In Baldwin’s “The Man Child”, one theme that I recognized is the idea of loneliness. Almost all the characters experience loneliness at some point in this story. Eric, Eric’s mother, Eric’s father, and Jamie all feel this emptiness in their lives. Jamie is the most obvious one because he has literally lost almost everything in his life. His wife left him and he wasn’t able to properly take care of his land, so his “best” friend, Eric’s father, had to take it off his hands. All Jamie has left is his dog, who seems to be a little crazy at times, and Eric’s father, who is apparently his best friend, but I’m not sure their friendship is as true as Eric may see it. Although they may have fought in the war together, it seems like, all his life, Jamie has always been subordinate to Eric’s father. It almost seems like that older-younger sibling relationship where you’re close, but the older sibling just seems to always do better in life. Things just seem to work out for them, leaving the younger sibling upset because they can’t seem to live up to their older sibling’s accomplishments. It’s sad because there’s nothing Jamie can really do about it. He is lost in life and things are just not working out for him.

Then we have Eric’s father, who seemingly has his whole life together, at least, compared to Jamie he does. He has a son, one who can look over the family lands once he gets too old. And then he also has another baby on the way. On the outside, life seems pretty good for Eric’s father. But, deep down, things aren’t okay. There’s a saying that adults always tell kids who are being bullied that states “If someone picks on you, that probably means they are insecure about themselves”. (This isn’t the exact saying, but ya’ll get the gist). One things that always bothered me about Eric’s father’s character, is that he feels the need to poke fun at Jamie’s life situation at any and every time he gets. But, I think he only does this because he’s trying to convince himself that his family situation is great, even though it may not be. His wife seems very distant from him and gets easily annoyed at his presence (mostly because his comments are very rude and somewhat disturbing). And his son doesn’t seem very interesting in the family business, or even the family at that matter. This is evident at the end scene, when in a dire situation, Eric offers Jamie all the land and even himself, offering Jamie the chance to kill his father and replace him. This is a very disturbing offer to be made, especially from a young child, and it comes to show just how dysfunctional this family is on the inside. Eric’s father can sense this and therefore tries to bring people together by having another child with his wife, providing a companion for Eric, while also offering to name the child after Jamie. Unfortunately, it comes off as him trying a little too hard, as in turn, it ends up pushing people away.

Then, we have the wife, whom I touched a little on earlier. Eric’s mother appears very tired with her marriage to her husband. Firstly, she has to cook and clean for her husband’s best friend, as if he’s her own husband/child. And secondly, she has to put up with Eric’s father’s possessive and negative comments towards her and Jamie. Eric’s mother seemingly has no say in this marriage, as she sits back and waits until she produces another child for her husband. Now, we can see that Eric is the only things she seems to truly love, so I would have no doubt that should would have loved her second child just the same. But, things took a turn for the worse as she miscarries and returns home to her only son. This event takes a huge toll on Eric’s mother, as she has just lost a huge pieces of her that would make her life a little bit more bearable. The loss of her second child has left her alone and hopeful that nothing will happen to Eric, for he is all that she has.

Not only does the loss of the second child effect Eric’s mother, but also his father. That child was a way that he was trying to keep the family happy and hopeful for the future. With the child gone, even though they still have Eric, a shadow seems to have been cast over the family as Eric’s father becomes very distant, straying away from his previous, peppy self, most likely because he has given up on a hopeful future.

All in all, it seems like all four characters experience some kind of loneliness. Although some appear to not be in order to save face, it is easy to see that there are tensions between all of them because of their discomfort around each other. Assumably, this family bond was doomed from the beginning, so as time presses on, things begin to become unbearable for all of them. One of them snaps, in a very unfortunate manner, and it deeply affects everyone.