When Greg Hollingshead published “The Roaring Girl” in 1995, critics recognized its sharp detail and unusual points of view. The boy’s point of view dominates the story, and while age and inexperience often limit his perspective—he mixes up “cunt” and “punt”—he may be the story’s most insightful character. He observes everyone with constant vigilance, especially monitoring the wellbeing of his parents and their interactions and vulnerabilities. He is keen on anything that may upset the balance of their world. Aware that his lack of knowledge of the wider world limits his understandings, he wants to learn more to become less vulnerable. The boy wishes that his father could do the same. While he admires his father’s great size, the boy sees him as vulnerable to the forces of the world, as symbolized by the man’s mangled fingernail.

The mother’s pregnancy is another threat, signaling danger and vulnerability. When the boy learns she had a stillborn baby who would have been named Jim, his own name, this creates for the boy a strange intimacy and rivalry with the dead brother. He fantasizes about how the dead Jim would be much better equipped at handling life, ironically idealizing the dead brother as a survivalist.