The book My Name is Aram is a semi-fictional autobiography of William Saroyan. This creative book presents recollections of his character from his early days in Fresno, California. Being a first generation Armenian, Aram presents his adventures from his youth, all in good humor, while at the same time addresses serious topics such as the challenges of immigrants in new environments, discrimination, amongst others, in a subtle sense. In order to understand the themes that emerge from this text, it is important to consider the background from which Aram’s character originated from as well as the prevailing issues that may justify his behavior towards them.
According to Kévorkian (25), Armenians faced persecution from the Ottoman Empire which was mainly an Islamic establishment. Being Christians, Armenians faced challenging times as they refused to convert to Islam. As a result, they were tortured and killed, an event referred to as the Armenian genocide. As a result, a large number of Christian Armenians migrated to the United States, with Fresno being a favorite. Settling in a new environment proved challenging as they had to accustom themselves to the new culture and values adopted in the region. Aram, was a child of first-generation American-Armenian parents who, together with family, tried to adapt to their new lives in California.
The underlying theme that dominates the book is that of childhood perspectives. This aspect is relevant as the book, with no chronological order, takes readers through the life of Aram from a young age to being a young adult, in different literature short story accounts. In this case, Aram whose age is between 7 and 12 years of age details of his adventurous encounters together with his cousins throughout the book. His experiences and interactions provide the analysis of the book from a different perspective, that of a child, which may be different, but refreshing at the same time.
In the short story ‘The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse’, the author presents childhood encounters filled with adventure and mischief, concepts a majority of readers could relate with. In this case, Aram is woken up at 4 A.M by his cousin Mourad who sat on a white horse. According to Aram, Mourad was considered to be crazy and demented by other members of the family apart from himself. This aspect illustrates the different perspectives held by children regarding other people’s personalities. In this case, children do not uphold other people’s opinions as they have no relevance to their own beliefs.
According to the Armenian culture, honesty is an essential value that is emphasized in the community, and more so, in the Garoghlanian family. Therefore, when Aram sees his cousin Mourad with the horse, he does not believe it to be stolen. This is despite the known fact that Mourad’s family was poor and there was no possible way he could afford to get a horse. However, Aram’s belief in his cousin goes against his initial thought and instead chooses to ignore this presumption. In addition, when riding with Mourad, the thought that the horse could be stolen is replaced by his assumption that it is not considered theft until one sells the stolen good, in this case, the horse. This illustration depicts the blinded trust that children have in the goodness and honesty of other people.
Childhood perspectives are also revealed in the short story ‘Locomotive 38 the Ojibway’. In the story, Aram meets a native Indian who introduces himself as Locomotive 38. The author carefully features the voice of other people in their opinions about others, and in this story, it is no different. The general perception that people have of Locomotive 38 is that he is crazy and is most likely to have escaped an asylum. He comes to town in a donkey which later gets injured by a Tulare Street Trolley and dies (Saroyan and Freeman 88). However, he shows no remorse and instead immediately goes in a drug store to make a call to his brother. His different attitude and behavior does not intrigue Aram, as it could to older individuals. On the contrary, instead of holding the same perspective as other people, Aram only thinks Locomotive 38 to be rich and not crazy.
The theme of childhood perspectives also comes out in the short story, ‘The Circus’. In this case, the circus act came into town and Aram and his friend Joey decided to skip school to attend the performances. Aram could not compare the time he had to spend in school while attending the circus would be a better choice. He did not understand the concept of education and the good it would do anybody. Therefore, their decision to attend the circus was a more reasonable choice.
According to Aram, the circus represented every childhood dream that was characterized by adventure, travel, thrill, romance, grace, and comedy and as a result, was worth escaping the harsh reality of attending school. Furthermore, the idea of the strapping they would receive from the school headmaster did not deter their position and the role play of a truant. However, as all good things end, Aram and Joey resigned to their fate and went back to school at the grimace of the headmaster, Dawson. As a consequence of their actions, they were both punished for skipping their lessons.
However, since the circus came to town every year, Aram and Joey always repeated the experience and chose to forego their lessons for the circus. This perspective is common among children as they are driven by the need to live in the moment and face the consequences later. This differs from the overall thought of the need to take careful consideration prior to making decisions among adults.
Conclusion
The short stories above present a relatable childhood experience to many individuals. The perspectives especially trigger the reader’s thoughts to not only think about Aram’s experiences superficially, but expose a deeper meaning of the difference in the thought process adopted by children. From the stories above, it is clear that childhood perspectives go beyond judgmental flaws adopted by adults, and instead involve honest character analysis.
Works Cited
Kévorkian, Raymond. The Armenian Genocide: A Complete History. London: I.B. Tauris, 2011. Print. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=mZ33AgAAQBAJ&pg=PR4&dq=Ke%CC%81vorkian,+Raymond.+The+Armenian+Genocide:+A+Complete+History.+London:+I.B.+Tauris,+2011.+Print.&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
Saroyan, William, and Don Freeman. My Name Is Aram. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2013. Print.
