Insert Flap “A” and Throw Away

S. J. Perelman was a well-known satirical author and screenwriter. He was known mostly for his essays that have appeared in The New Yorker and for co-writing screenplays with the Marx Brothers. His essay Insert Flap “A” and Throw Away follows the story of a father who helps his children put together a model truck.

During the 1940s, around the time this essay was published, there was strict gender roles placed on families. Women had to be the perfect housewife and mother, while men had to be the strong and masculine figure for their children. In Insert Flap “A” and Throw Away Perelman wanted to show people that if they continued to shove themselves into society’s unattainable mold they would eventually drive themselves crazy.

Perelman achieved his goal by using first person point of view. When Perelman used first person he allowed the reader to watch how the father went from calm and determined to manic and defeated just because he couldn’t be what society wanted.

In the beginning of the building process the father was very calm, he even said, “I was ready for the second phase” (187). Although, once he discovers that the pieces don’t fit together he starts to lose his patience. Perelman writes, “I set my lips in a grim line and (…) pounded the component parts into a homogeneous mass” (188). The children don’t accept this “mass” that their father produced and they force him to try and actually build the truck.

At this point the father is more building the truck just to prove to his children that he can. He says, “I determined to show them who was master” (189). The father is unable to separate himself from the role society put on him to be the man of the house. As a result he feels like he can’t let his children down and give up on building the toy. When he ends up incapable to fulfill this role he goes mad. 

Common Characteristics Associated With Gender
(Pinterest)