Reviewed by Jen Forbus
Zwilich is a social worker called in when Cesar, an eleven-year-old boy, is removed from his home for threatening his mother and younger brother. A small boy who looks perfectly harmless has a rap sheet as long as Zwilich’s arm. Cesar’s family has failed him, his environment has failed him and the system has failed him. Yet Cesar still shows signs of wanting, needing the love and security of his mother. When that love fails he finds security in a more toxic environment.
As Zwilich attempts to counsel the young boy, he looks inward at his own life, his own relationships; Zwilich’s life begins to parallel Cesar’s. The biggest difference is Zwilich’s control over his circumstances as opposed to Cesar’s utter helplessness against his own.
“Tetanus” examines a deeply rooted evil of America’s underprivileged element of society. The evil perpetuates itself generation to generation without a glimmer of hope for reversal. Cesar represents so many of the youth in these areas, children whose hope is stolen from them before they’re even born. Parents who desert the children either physically or emotionally; communities that poison the lives of the children who’ve been deserted; a legal system that punishes them further. Zwilich is ill-equipped to battle all the forces acting against Cesar when he hasn’t even been able to battle the forces in his own life.
Oates narrates “Tetanus” in a stream-of-consciousness style of sentence fragments and wandering thoughts. This style emphasizes the feeling of powerlessness and uncertainty. The gritty feel of the setting and Cesar emanates from the pages. The beauty of this story is paradoxically its depiction of our society’s repulsiveness.
That paragraph of Jen’s is really well put together. Tetanus looks like one for me.