Chapter+4

First of all, Joe, Aaron and Byron would like to state that this chapter is mainly about Alvin and his adjustment both his new leg and new life through the eyes of Philip. Philip became his roommate and caretaker and in a way has become Alvin's prosthetic to the real world. This chapter helps re-emphasis how much of an outsider Alvin is to the family through his physical differences and Philips recollection helps enforce this view.

Alvin is discharged from the Canadian army in January of 1942 and goes through a recovery process of learning to walk, which parallels the process of how he reinstates himself into the real world, using Philip as his prosthetic in this case.

Philip and his family picked Alvin up at the train station shortly after he was discharged in January, close to a year after Lindbergh took office. Roth reinforces the belief of an outsider by his reaction to Alvin when he gets off the train. "I'd never before seen anyone so skeletal or so dejected. His eyes showed no fear, however, or any trace of weeping, and they surveyed my father with ferocity, as though it were the guardian who had committed the unpardonable act that had rendered the ward a cripple." This shows how Alvin views the family in a different light as well, so the feeling is mutual.

They return home and Alvin moves into Philip's room while Sandy sleeps in the sun parlor, despite Philip's unspoken insistence that he would prefer not staying with Alvin, and it is thanks to these sleeping arrangements that Alvin becomes dependant on Philip and the two develop a special bond that they hadn't had before Alvin enlisted.

A main problem of Philip's wasn't necessarily Alvin but the physical deformity that Alvin's stump proved to be. Alvin's mentality toward the problem only seemed to make it worse in his own eyes and in Philip's eyes. An example of Alvin's attitude is when Philip asks him, "How long will it take to heal?" and Alvin's bitter response is, "Forever." This leads into how Philip is always helping Alvin with the stump when it gets broken down and the prosthetic needs to be put back on.

The first instance of Philip's fear of the cellar comes up and this is a re-occuring factor later in the book as it resurfaces many times. This is an example Philip's fear of the unknown.

Though Alvin is at this time extremely bitter, angry, and feeling miserable, he makes sure to let Philip know, "I couldn't live without you," in reference to Philip acting as Alvin's prosthesis and as a thanks he gives Philip his Canadian medal. Philip wears this medal everywhere as a symbol of his pride in his cousin, for through this interaction with Alvin, his fear turns into pride for what his cousin had done, though Philip doesn't yet know why he got the medal. Because Philip has helped and sided with Alvin in the wake of his return, Alvin develops a closer bond with Philip than with Sandy, and only estranges himself more from Sandy as he realizes that Sandy "had also been the first to sign on with the fascists."

Uncle Monty's subsequent visit to the Roths is the climax of this chapter. It puts Alvin's position into perspective, and we as readers finally learn how exactly Alvin lost his leg, and it is not the heroic version that Philip had imagined it would be. Uncle Monty really comes down hard on him because he is a bully but also has some insight on the situation, on account of Monty having been in the first World War. He chews out Alvin good but brings up a lot of valuable points and leads the reader to question Alvin, what will happen, and what has happened.