Ruvalcaba 1

Bianca C Ruvalcaba
Professor Martinez
UNIV 1301
11/29/16
Critical Analysis of The Child Screams and Looks Back At You
In the short story "The Child Screams and Looks Back at You," Banks uses a series of
different kinds of tones towards the idea of empathy and confidence. He explains how the mother
in the story reacts to her ill child. It isnt in a way that most mothers would react to their sick
child.
Banks was the type of writer that addressed the psychological effects of poverty, child
abuse, and alcoholism in his works. He earned awards for the different types of characteristics
he related to life. One example is when he used trenchant evocations of the anxiety and
hopelessness. Banks would write about the real things in life. He was super blunt in his pieces.
Which is a good thing because it was a perfect time for the era he wrote them in.
Banks was the first of four children from Earl and Florence Banks. He was born on
March 28, 1940 in Newton, Massachusetts. His parents ended up leaving each other because his
dad had an affair with a lady that later became his girlfriend. It seems that is where Banks got his
ideas of his works. He had a rough childhood so he used that to his advantage.
In The Child Screams and Look Back at You, the child that is mentioned is really sick
to the point where he is going to die. Unfortunately, there isnt anything that could change that. It
is also mentioned how the father abuses the mother and how he is a drunk. It shows that she had
no control over anything, but then again abuse is something hard to get away from. That is one
way Banks uses tone to show the confidence level of the mother. She is nowhere near being a

Ruvalcaba 2
strong independent mother, Especially, with the fact that one of her children is going to die and
she cant do anything about it. She feels like a horrible mother and useless.
Another way that Banks uses tone to show the confidence of the mother is when she is
tired of being the same mother all the time. When the doctor shows up to see if he can help her
sick child, she flirts with the doctor and wants to kiss him. That shows that she wants something
to distract her from the fact that shes only going to have two kids instead of three.
Banks uses tone to also show the empathy described in the story. To start off he is killing
off a child, right away that gives the reader a chance to show their empathy, because who would
want a child to die. There could be some readers that dont have any empathy towards that but
that is beside the point. Banks shows how the mother is a single hardworking mother trying to
take care of her kids and also go to work, which also gives the reader a chance to have that
empathy, and to top it off her husband left the family.
The mother seems to have empathy towards her son, but it feels like she wants to get his
death over with at the same time. It sounds really harsh but thats how Banks makes it seem. The
reason that I think that is because she starts thinking about herself at a time where her child needs
her. She decides to not be a mother anymore, but then again she tries helping him with what she
can even if she cant do anything about the childs future.
In conclusion I think Banks story is based on his life when he was a child. He probably
made a few adjustments to make it better, but I really think it is based off of his life because of
the facts that Ive read. The way Banks used tone to describe both of these characteristics made
the story more understanding and interesting. Confidence and empathy both helped determine
the idea that Banks was trying to put out. The death of a child will not ever be easy to take in for
anyone, especially when they cant do anything about it. I believe that is why Banks titled the

Ruvalcaba 3
way he did because the child is feeling sort of a betrayal and so he screams. Banks did a really
good job on describing the tone to this short story.

Ruvalcaba 4
References
"Banks, Russell (1940-), An Introduction to." Contemporary Literary Criticism, edited by
Tom Burns and Jeffrey W. Hunter, vol. 187, Gale, 2004. Contemporary Literary Criticism
Online, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LCO&sw=w&u=txshracd2603&v=2.1&id=GALE
%7COAVSZF499643508&it=r. Accessed 28 Nov. 2016.
Vandersluis, Melora G. Style. Style, vol. 47, no. 4, 2013, pp. 566568.
www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/style.47.4.566.