In awe of Mother
Little Alex was both afraid and in awe of his mother. She was “so deeply embedded” in his consciousness that for the first year of school he believed that each of his teachers was his “mother in disguise.” As soon as the last bell had sounded, he would “rush off for home,” wondering if he could possibly make it to their apartment “before she had succeeded in transforming herself.” “Invariably” she was already in the kitchen by the time he arrived and setting out his “milk and cookies.” The feat “intensified” his respect “for her powers.” This imagery evokes a smile, for only little children – so innocent and naïve – can actually believe in it.
Memories of his parents
Alex was his mother’s favorite. She used to call him “Albert Einstein the Second.” What was more, his father loved him too. Unlike his mother, the father was just a usual man. He drank “mineral oil and milk of magnesia,” chewed on “Ex-Lax,” and ate “All-Bran morning and night.” He downed “mixed fried fruits by the pound bag.” The poor man “suffered from constipation.” “Her ubiquity and his constipation,” his mother “flying through the window,” and his father “reading the evening paper with a suppository up his ass” were the “earliest impressions” Alex had of his family. This imagery evokes mixed feelings, but proves that Alex has vivid imagination.
The energy
Alex’s mother was an exceptional woman. It was she who “could accomplish anything,” who herself had to admit that “it might even be that she was actually too good.” And how could little Alex doubt that “this was so?” She could make jello, “with sliced peaches hanging in it, peaches that suspended there, in defiance of gravity.” She could bake a cake that “tasted like banana.” “The energy on her!” “The thoroughness!” Her willpower was amazing and – frankly speaking – overwhelming. This imagery evokes a feeling of awe and respect that little Alex feels for his mother.
