Jenna,
First--I'm impressed with your way with words, both in this piece and in your other work. Among my favorite phrases from this memory are "throwing his graduation cap in the air for eternity" and "as though she would continue to curtsy for her guests until the train came home." As I'm picturing what these characters/deer look like, dancing down the road or stapled to the door, respectively, your smart descriptions give me an intriguing visual, one that is both comic and sad, in both cases.
Brett touched on regional or at least locational bias as well as performativity, both of which I think are worthwhile avenues to explore with this piece. But I think, too, of the role the media plays in stereotypes about the south, etc. When you mention the news stations "interview[ing] the person wearing head-to-toe camouflage, you touch on what I'm talking about. Not that it's a character flaw or even, in the wider scope of things, a stereotype-worthy image. But we can make it one in order to inform our idea of, or need for, the "lesser," which you allude to in initially reading the Hiram dancing man as a result of "too much exposure to roadkill stew," a reading which, you suggest, was later revised.
So, one possible avenue might be the influence of outside sources in the formation of biases or stereotypes. How much is "us" and how much is being fed to us? But, if that seems too obvious a thread, how about the prevalence of these loner figures like the Hiram dancing man, defying social expectations to live on the margins? There have been two such characters in Wedowee and two in Woodland in my lifetime, and these are very small towns. I'm sure they're out there in New York, too, although they might not initially stand out in a larger crowd. What do you think?
I think this piece is fantastically presented! If you decide to keep going with this entry, regardless of which thread you decide to follow to expand it, I look forward to reading it. Great work!!
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