A pot of boiling water. A child in a diaper. Two things that should never mix. 

Recently, I read David Foster Wallace’s “Incarnations of Burned Children,” which is a two-page short story that involves both boiling water and a child in diapers — and parental neglect. Before I proceed, I really do recommend you read the story; it’s only a couple of pages long and Wallace’s brilliance shines in the tightly packaged piece (though it is somewhat graphic and hard to read at points — you have been warned). 

In short, a pot of boiling water falls onto a toddler who is playing unassumingly below (seemingly from the neglect of the mother). The story details the father’s point of view of the accident as he frantically pours cold water over the already-scalded child. After several minutes of screaming and being swaddled in a towel, it dawns on the parents to check the diaper. It burns them and they realize there has been boiling water in the diaper burning the child the entire time. 

The story ended once they got the child to an operating table at the ER and the child “learned to leave himself and watch the rest unfold from a point overhead… and walked about and drew pay and lived its life untenanted, a thing among things.” 

What can be learned from this brutal story? And why is it important for teenagers? To explain, I will outline my interpretation of the story’s ending. The child’s soul leaves his body because he will have to live the rest of his life with the trauma (and likely disfigurement) from the event. This trauma causes the child to lead an unfulfilling and empty life when he is an adult (which we get a glimpse of when we learn that he “draws pay” and lives simply as a “thing among things”). 

The child’s personhood was stripped away from him because of the physical pain he endured as a toddler, and he will continue living as a body “untenanted” for the rest of his life. Extrapolating this idea to the average person — the average teenager perhaps — is all too easy. When humans face extreme pain (though for most people it may be emotional pain, not physical), we learn “to leave ourselves” and separate ourselves from the pain. 

Perhaps most people get “scalded” by a painful experience when they are young (if not by parents, by other people) and live “untenanted” lives henceforth. It’s hard to get through life without some amount of pain, the key is to be cognizant of it and live in the present despite it. 

Overall, the story leaves the reader with the haunting image of the three simple yet tragic characters. It is thought provoking, excellent and horrifying. I strongly recommend it.