Blue Devils of Blue River Avenue Response

[pallis03]

Paige Allison
ENGL 151
Jeb Wyman
16 November 2012

The Blue Devils of Blue River Avenue Response:

    Initially I thought this story was about someone much older until the age’s of all the children were stated. It makes sense though because the narrator is retelling the story in what seems to be much farther in the future. Which is apparent at the end of the story when the narrator talks about how Ronald Sambeaux (the first name stated by the narrator) was his (narrator) his best man. I think it is important to note that the whole story the reader doesn’t know the name of the narrator or even the names of any of his family members. It’s interesting that the author does this because it really frames Ronald as the main character, not the narrator.
    The beginning of the story started off setting the scene immediately in San Diego during the early 60s. I don’t know why but at first I thought the narrator was a girl. I thought this until the narrator started talking about wrestling with the neighborhood boys and the way the narrator talked about girls. But hey thats just me stereotyping.
    Right off the bat the Sambeaux’s were described mysteriously and I thought that the dad might be a witch or something. I thought it was a nice contrast that the mood in the beginning of the story was very curious like a child but as time goes on and the narrator gets older, the story gets darker. I guess the story was pretty dark a few pages in talking about the little girls that wore makeup and talked dirty to the little boys. Taking this into account I still did not expect what happened to Bizzy, Ronald’s little sister.
    This story reminded me of a more intense and real version of Stand By Me. Even down to how it wasn’t the narrator but, River Phoenix’s character who was the hero or main character. It also reminded me of the movie Sandlot because of the kids playing baseball and getting into trouble and the scary house in the neighborhood (the Sambeaux’s). For example, “Kids from blocks away would come to start at it as if it were a house on fire or a house that had burned down or the house of Red Riding Hood’s granny with the wolf inside.” I thought this quote was also one of the many lines that foreshadowed that Mr. Sambeaux was a bad man. Along with the little we hear about the narrator’s mother going to court and not allowing the narrator to go to the Sambeaux’s.