Swimming Through the Ashes at the Bottom of the World
So Mitt’s death was something that really struck me in our reading. I think it was so striking for two reasons.
1. The method
2. The description
Mitt’s death was described as almost poetic, which made it all the more tragic. He was crushed underneath the bodies of his friends at his own birthday party. Mitt was at the bottom of a dog pile, a normally harmless thing that turned out to be something deadly.
It was descrbed as being “at the bottom of the world”. That particular description raised a few questions for in regards to why that was used. I think putting Mitt at the bottom of the world did a few things. It put him out of touch with anyone that could save him. It set him apart from the other children and made him seem alone as he suffocated under their weight.
Since this book seems to be a commentary on a lot of things, including race, I wonder if that description had some relation to racism. Those at the bottom of the world must carry the burden of everyone else and I wonder if the author was referring to immigrants, specifically asians (since there are a mass number of them in relation to other foreign populations) doing the work for the supposed “dominant races” like whites. It’s just pure speculation of course but I wonder if there’s any truth to it.
I’m also kinda of curious, even after talking about his death in class, how his parents didn’t notice that Mitt was being crushed on the bottom of said dogpile. I assume they were at the event given the description Henry presented to the reader so I’m curious how they failed to realize their sson was dying? It might have just been something overlooked for a plot device on the part of the author but that seems too careless in my opinion.
