The Ballad of Plastic Fred Log

Quote 1

"The anonymous plastic Indian sat casually on the back seat"

After Kay, the narrator's sister, hit the mailbox, she went and bought the boy and his friend, Innis, their plastic Indian doll. The narrator wanted "Fred", the Indian doll they usually play with, but after the run-in with the mailbox, Kay did not care if the Indian doll was Fred or not. Because there is a dent in the car, the narrator and Innis wanted to find a dead cat to tell Kay's mom that the dent was because of the cat. The plastic Indian sat in their back seat. I chose this quote because I thought it was interesting why the author included this in the text. The little boy thought about the Indian figurine when he should have been thinking about how they should cover the dent on the car. He also later refers to the Indian figure when his mom drives Fred's parents to the airport to get Fred's body. The Indian Chief experiences death because he was sitting in the back seat when Innis killed the cat and when the boy's mom declares Fred dead. 

Quote 2

"Maybe he just couldn't find someone to stomp on his throat"

In the real world, death is not something that is exciting; rather, it is just part of life. In the beginning, the narrator and his friends would find elaborate ways to "kill" the plastic Fred. They found it humorous and a fun way to pass time. When the narrator's sister, Kay, placed a dent in the car, they went to find a dead cat to cover the deed up. Kay, the boy, and his friend, Innis, found a cat, they saw it barely alive. Kay and the boy were not going to kill it but Innis did by stomping on the cat's throat. The deed was done but the children did not experience its death like the way they set up Plastic Fred's death. It was uneventful and they had to deal with the body. When they hear the news of Fred Howkowski's suicide, the boy wondered why Fred killed himself. Fred always played the character with dramatic deaths and yet he took his life in an uneventful way. The narrator questions Fred's way of death because he thinks that dying by someone stomping on another's throat is more exciting than just taking away their own life. We see the narrator grow as he encounters death in real life. Instead of the Hollywood-coated, action-packed deaths, he faced the reality of death. Death takes place of a matter-of-fact form where someone can even take their own life.