The Changing Effects of One as told in Children on Their Birthdays

The Changing Effects of One as told in Children on Their Birthdays

In Truman Capote’s “Children on Their Birthdays,” the reader is allowed to see the ability one person has to effect a community. Through the character of Miss Bobbit, Capote shows all of the different effects, both positive and negative, that a young girl was able to have on an entire town. Through the effects of Miss Bobbit, the reader sees how a small shakeup in what is expected to be normal can benefit something for the better.

From the offset of the story the characters lives were shown to be normal and boring. Capote’s description of life before Miss Bobbit allows the reader to see how simple and boring the lives of the characters were. “Anyway we were sitting on the porch, tutti-frutti melting on our plates, when suddenly, just as we were wishing that something would happen, something did.” (184). The characters need for excitement and change is once again shown when Miss Bobbit arrives, and the young boys on the porch react to her arrival. “But Billy Bob and all the other boys, none of whom was over thirteen, followed down to the gate after us.

From their faces you would have thought they’d never seen a girl before.” (184,185). The boys desire to see the girl further shows their desperate need for something to change their way of life.

Change due to Miss Bobbit becomes most apparent in the characters of Billy Bob and Preacher Star. The idea of something different starte...