It was like seeing American flags impaled on white picket fences. He had been red, he had been white, he had been blue and July Fourth. But now, the mythology of him was over. He who was so handsome, as children all the girls thought they would marry him and leave the earth for the stars.
In the novel, Fielding’s older brother is named Grand. And in Fielding’s eyes, Grand is the very definition of his name. Someone who is seemingly perfect. But there comes pressure with that perfection. And for Grand, he is someone who is struggling with his identity. He learns Russian in the novel. This foreign language in the American landscape is his way of trying to come to terms with that which feels foreign inside of him. At the time, being gay in middle American was not widely accepted. This is also on the doorstep of the AIDS epidemic.
Grand learns Russian in an attempt to learn and understand himself. It could have been any language. It wasn’t the country of origin that mattered. What matters is this is Grand’s attempt to understand who he is. Fielding is the only other person in the house who attempts to learn Russian as well, and readers eventually learn the foreshadowing behind this. But certainly, Grand is a character who struggling to speak the language that will reveal his true self.
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