The Kid Nobody Could Handle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., 1955
The magic trick:
Presenting a conflict resolution that represents a remarkably earnest ideal
It’s funny to read Vonnegut in such an earnest mode here. The hero of the story is a high school band director. His solution for reaching a local troublemaker is to win him over with a trumpet once owned by John Philips Sousa.
Read that again, please, and consider that this is the same author who would bring us Slaughterhouse Five.
How could it be the same author?
Well, I think there is a coherent logic here, actually. This here – a world where a high school band director can use a trumpet to pull a student back from the brink of a life in crime – this is the world Vonnegut thinks should be a reasonable expectation. That America didn’t foster this kind of wholesome, logical, kindhearted, sensible society in the aftermath of World War II is exactly what his novels are railing against.
And that’s quite a trick on Vonnegut’s part.
The selection:
Helmholtz was overwhelmed by remorse. He threw his arms around the boy. “Jim! Jim – listen to me, boy!”
Jim stopped quaking.
“You know what you’ve got there – the trumpet?” said Helmholtz. “You know what’s special about it?”
Jim only sighed.
“It belonged to John Philip Sousa!” said Helmholtz. He rocked and shook Jim gently, trying to bring him back to life. “I’ll trade it to you, Jim – for your boots. It’s yours, Jim! John Philip Sousa’s trumpet is yours! It’s worth hundreds of dollars, Jim – thousands!”
Jim laid his head on Helmholtz’s breast.
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