Bruno

Discussion (8) ¬

1. 
   ronald

   June 4, 2018 at 7:14 am | #

   I’m sorry, isn’t she, like, TWELVE?* She’s going to be under her parents’ yoke for quite a while yet.

   An adult groveling to a twelve-year-old, well, I suppose we already knew that Bruno has no self-esteem.

   ===
   *she’s the same age as Katya and Katya’s not even old enough to be left to look after herself
2. 
   llirium

   June 4, 2018 at 11:25 am | #

   Amy meant a mental yoke, ron. Amy was a kid with neglectful parents fobbing her off on “Barney and Friends” as a babysitter and maybe surrogate parent. Amy broke out of thinking that kind of parenting was okay once Bruno encouraged her to think for herself.

   Amy deconstructed the “I have good parents” lie of her life, with help from Bruno.

   Whether or not that paradigm shift really helped a young girl, still dependent on undependable caretakers, is up for debate. In the long run, Amy’s mind is a bit more resilient, but in the short term (before she *can* move out), pretty sad and lonely.
3. 
   ronald

   June 4, 2018 at 3:01 pm | #

   “Amy meant a mental yoke”

   Prove it.
   ;-)

   You’ve obviously read far more into what we know about Amy’s parents than I have. It’s entirely possible that you’re right and I’m wrong, of course…I’m just perceiving a different underlying premise than you are.

   I don’t “get” how a six-year-old can be “estranged” from her parents — and if Amy’s talking about an estrangement that happened years after the fact, well, it hardly seems fair to put it ALL on Bruno — but then, this is a comic strip kid.
4. 
   ronald

   June 4, 2018 at 3:02 pm | #

   Okay, that should have been “proceeding from a different underlying premise.” Sorry about that. :-|
5. 
   Peter Rogan

   June 4, 2018 at 6:44 pm | #

   Amy, once forcibly removed from TV culture and likewise taken unwillingly outside and into town, blossomed from a narcissistic-trained little brat to a surprisingly mature and self-aware young lady. It was a journey Bruno began but could not herself continue, though she yearns even now to do so, because her own self-awareness has not advanced as far, as remarkably far, as Amy has.

   The student outshining the teacher is an old cliché, even in non-Western traditions. But it has not been presented with the poignancy Amy delivers here. She knows Bruno is self-limiting through flight. She knows the cure is to find yourself even in the midst of becoming involved with, perhaps even emulating others. She lacks the same raw authority the older Bruno had as her minder in loco parentis, and, to her credit, doesn’t pine for it. The autonomy Bruno brought to her despite Amy’s puellile resistance she respects even when it’s in her way. Force won’t do here. Only persuasion. But these tools are subtle, and slow, and do not always work the way you want them to. Certainly not directly.

   The exquisite and subtle irony here is that the student, having exceeded the master, is still no match for the terror in Bruno’s soul. Amy knows what Bruno must become, but doesn’t know how to get there. Bruno knew how to unplug Amy from the TV, actually and figuratively. Amy doesn’t know how to keep the free bird from flying. It’s a far, far more difficult task to teach someone else how to use their freedom wisely. Almighty difficult.
6. 
   llirium

   June 5, 2018 at 10:34 am | #

   Sorry for the belated follow-up, but Peter got most of it pretty well.

   You’d be surprised how a person can feel mentally estranged from their parents with them still being physically there every day when they’re a child. I feel for Amy, because her parents didn’t even seem to care about her as a person, or worry about their lack of skill as parents, or be concerned about having practically no communication with her.

   Amy was just “a child” to them, because married, successful couples must have children, of course. No matter if you don’t really like children to begin with.

   Amy’s parents’ choice of Bruno as caretaker only solidifies their incompetence. Not that I think Bruno was all bad for Amy or has no blame in the current situation, but perhaps Amy’s parents could have listened to their own misgivings and not left Amy with Bruno in the first place?
7. 
   llirium

   June 5, 2018 at 10:46 am | #

   @ron Sorry, should have been more honest. I can’t prove one way or another that Amy is talking about only physical yokes or mental ones; maybe it’s a mix of the two.

   I believed in the earlier comment that it was mental, because that would have taken the most work on Amy’s part. Amy would have to give up the idea of her parents being understanding and loving no matter what she decided to do with her life.

   However, at this moment, I don’t know what kind of yoke Amy thinks it is.
8. 
   Peter Rogan

   June 5, 2018 at 7:55 pm | #

   I always thought Amy was just using an overused phrase in an ironic way. She’s certainly not being used as a beast of burden, nor is she forced, as the Samnites forced the Romans to discard all weapons and armor before passing under an upended yoke as part of their surrender at the Caudine Forks. The sense of old, tired, shopworn and world-weary is what I came away with. FWIW, as the kids say.