The Twilight Zone Episode, "It's a Good Life"

In this episode of the Twilight Zone, there is a child named Anthony who affects other people in a crazy way. He does not act very differently from others at first, but has a special ability that allows him to listen to people’s thoughts and to make people “disappear” whenever he likes. Anthony gets angry when people around him are not thinking good thoughts. I noticed that Anthony affects people in a way that makes them very scared and nervous about what they say around him. Characters in this episode tend to say things like “that is very good, very good,” to keep the peace with Anthony and the people around him. I think that it would be very scary to be around a mutant child with abilities similar to Anthony’s. You would have to be very careful about what you say and do or you may “disappear” at any time.

At the beginning of this episode I thought that Anthony was just a normal kid because he looks and acts in pretty much the same ways, although one thing I noticed was that he is very quiet. I wondered why Anthony did not say much. When he did talk, it was just a small comment or a short reply to someone’s question. I think that this trait of Anthony’s makes his image as a mutant child even creepier. I feel like this would make it hard for someone to tell if what they are thinking is making him angry, and you definitely would not want to make Anthony angry when you are around him!

Short Story, "Jeffty is Five"

The short story “Jeffty is Five,” is a great example of mutant children and the ways that other people can be affected . At the beginning of the story, Don and Jeffty were five years old together and played together.  Don went to live with his Aunt Patricia for two years and when he came back home, Jeffty was still five years old. Don was sent to military school for four years when he was ten, and when he came back Jeffty was still five years old. When Don came home from college he was twenty-two and Jeffty had not changed. He was still five years old, not a day older. These ideas made me wonder if Jeffty had some kind of illness or disorder that made it harder for him to learn and develop. In the story, Don says that Jeffty is “Smart as a whip for five years old; very bright, quick, cute, a funny kid.” This made me realize that the only strange thing is that he was supposed to be the same age Don was: twenty-two.

 “Things I should have noticed so many times before, I first began to notice only that afternoon.” This sentence made me ask the question of what kinds of things? When Don noticed that Jeffty was holding a Captain Midnight Secret Decoder Badge he said the toy was a miracle. This is the beginning of everything that Don would soon learn about Jeffty. Don heard Jeffty listening to many different TV shows that were created and were playing only when Don was five years old. This is when Jeffty took Don into his world and showed him that he is able to bring things from the past to the present. I think that this is a very interesting ability for a child to have. I noticed that Don would sometimes get so absorbed in Jeffty’s world that he would forget to do everyday things in the real world around him. Although this is a little dangerous, I think this would be a cool ability to have because you would be able to revisit things from your past that you really enjoyed. 

Helllllooo! This is my blog! I will be writing posts about videos and short stories soon :)