I really liked this short story, even though some parts of it were "out there". The title is very fitting.
The story is narrated by Davy, a young boy who decides to dress up as Hitler for Halloween. Davy's dad, who doesn't set a lot of rules for him, helps make his costume, and he wears it to school. As soon as other kids see him, they start making inappropriate remarks, and he's unsure of how to react. One of his classmates, Lisette, dresses up as Anne Frank, which causes a lot of tension for everyone. Lisette is very articulate in describing Anne Frank, and she basically makes everyone hate Davy for dressing up as Hitler. This makes Davy very sad. For the school parade, he takes off his mustache and swastika in exchange for a gray wig a teacher gives him. When he tells his dad about his school day, he's "genuinely disappointed" with the kids' reactions. It's okay, though, because they go out and buy a crappy Frankenstein mask to replace the Hitler costume. Next, they go to the Harvest Carnival, and all the kids from school are there. Davy keeps noticing Cyndy Dartmouth, a seventh grade girl who dresses up as a hooker. In other words, he's very attracted to her. They go into this spooky tunnel together, and Davy starts crying because he's scared, and Cyndy starts comforting him. A high schooler opens the tunnel and makes fun of them because he thinks they're "doing it", or having sex. Cyndy gets frustrated, but Davy has mixed feelings because he likes the idea of doing something with her in the maze. He decides to leave, and he finally goes trick-or-treating with his dad. They stop at the Friedlanders' house, also the only Jewish family in the entire town. Davy feels bad for them, but he doesn't really do anything, so he takes his candy and they go home. After his dad falls asleep, Davy goes downstairs to all of these stoves (because his dad makes wood stoves) and he considers burning all of his candy, but he decides to eat it instead. Finally, Davy sticks his hand in the stove until it starts to hurt him.
The plot of this story is very conflicting. It was difficult for Davy because his costume choice was a bold one, but even though he did that, he was treated as if he was actually Hitler. He was just a curious kid that wanted to try out a lot of things, and I think every young child goes through a phase similar to the one in this story.
My favorite line from the story was, "I liked her because she stuck up for me on the bus and one time told me what a tampon was." This sums up perfectly what I wrote about in the previous paragraph- how kids just want to attain a lot of information, even if it doesn't benefit them at all. Davy wanted to know what a tampon was because he was curious. Overall, I liked this story and how it grapples with various types of conflict.
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