Working for the FBI would be a cinch

Susan Orlean's "The American Male at Age Ten" is interesting to read, and holds the reader's attention the entire time.  Not only is the piece incredibly descriptive--the reader feels like they have met Colin by the end of it--but entertaining as well.  The piece brings you back to fifth grade between the descriptions of Colin and his friends and the innocent observations Colin has about the world.

Colin thinks a lot about money.  This started when he was about nine and a half, which is when a lot of other things started - a new way of walking that has a little macho hitch and swagger, a decision about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (con) and Eurythmics (pro), and a persistent curiosity about a certain girl whose name he will not reveal.  He knows the price of everything he encounters.  He knows how much college costs and what someone might earn performing different jobs. Once, he asked me what my husband did; when I answered that he was a lawyer, he snapped, "You must be a rich family.  Lawyers make $400,000 a year."  His preoccupation with money baffles his family.  They are not struggling, so this is not the anxiety of deprivation; they are also not rich, so, he is not responding to an elegant, advantaged world.  HIs allowance is five dollars a week.  It seems sufficient for his needs, which consist chiefly of quarters for Nintendo and candy money.  The remainder is put into his Wyoming fund.  His fascination is not just specific to needing money or having plans for money; It is as if money itself, and the way it makes the world work, and the realization that almost everything in the world can be assigned a price, has possessed him.  "I just pay attention to things like that," Colin says, "It's really very interesting." 

In previous passages, Orlean has discussed the fact that age 10 is when a lot of changes begin happening in children, and that these changes will certainly impact their adult life.  Colin's fascination with money is likely to be one of the things that will have an effect on him later in life.  It is interesting that Orlean chooses to write about Colin's interest in money; because it is mentioned that his family is not rich but also not poor, it is interesting that his interest is even mentioned.  Because of the descriptions about his family in the paragraph, and the nonchalant attitude they have towards money, and the fact that they are baffled by his preoccupation with money, there seems to be no apparent reason why Colin is so interested in it, but he is.

This is my favorite paragraph in the piece; before this paragraph, there are many interesting things about Colin mentioned, but many of these things could be attributed to a number of 10 year old boys.  However, Colin's interest in money shows a different side of him, and perhaps a deeper side of him, that requires him to confront the realities of the world at such a young age.  Colin has realized very early in his life that being an adult means planning, responsibility and consideration, and he has already begun to exhibit these behaviors, making his life and interests far more interesting to read about than just any 10 year old boy.