Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1996. [Vol. 3.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 23)

STUDIES - László Dányi: Decoding Decoded Systems: An Interpretation of Steven Millhauser's "In the Penny Arcade"

Lump (4) is the narrator's interpretation which is static compared to (7). The twelve-year-old boy's retrospect views (3) cluster around two time levels. On the one hand they comprise events that happened right before entering the penny arcade on his twelfth birthday (5), and on the other hand they contain reminescences from his earlier experiences (6). Lumps (4), (3), (5) and (6) are static in themselves but they always change within (7). A subtle shift in the narrative voice expresses the resilience in the narrative voice of the twelve-year-old narrator and that of the narrator when the latter surmises that "for a moment I was tempted by the derrick, but at once despised my childishness and continued on my way" (Millhauser 136). In this sentence the child neglects his childishness, which is more like an utterance by the narrator than by the twelve-year-old boy. Observing the other characters who are "constructs, types, quite deliberately devoid of much inner life" (Stevick 201) I assume that the clear-cut dividing line between characters and objects is blurred as human qualities and appearances are attached to objects, and human beings also share features common with objects. The two exceptions could be the mother and the father who show some feelings towards the child. The gamblers inside the arcade form a communion with the machines. At first they seem to have control over the machines, but they are attracted to them with such fanatism and mania that the controler cannot be separated, or distinguished from the controled. Their fanatic longing for playing confirms that the machines have power over them. In fact, unlike people, machines appear to be more illuminating and to be full of exhilaration, and people's ennui and disinfatuation are contrasted with the novelty, elation and euphoria of machines, "A tall muscular teenager with a blond crewcut and sullen gray eyes stood bent over a pinball machine that showed luminous Hawaiian girls" (Millhauser 136). This teenager looks and behaves very much like the fake cowboy whose voice is similar to a human being's, 16