My mother's response and interpretation

The following is my mother's initial response to "The Man in the Well."
"The story started off erratic and I wasn't sure what the children were going to do when they discovered the man in the well. At first, I was full of hope and thought the children would help the man, but I progressively became full of despair and felt the anguish of the man. I could see myself as a nine year old child not knowing what to do or how to act. I could also see myself acting like the narrator by trying to hide myself from the man in the well and imagining what he looked like. It did not seem ethical for the children to lie to the man about getting help, but I do not think they felt as though they were doing anything wrong. When the children brought food and water to the man, it gave them a sense of relief. Although they did not get adult help, they were still helping him in their own way. Along with bringing him food and water, the children continued to lie to him about getting help, which began to seem like some sort of game to them. Even when the first name was spoken, Wendy had broken one of the "rules." The man in the well provided them with temporary amusement that quickly flourished into fear. I think the man in the well started playing the game himself. He used every child's name in hope for a response, any kind of response, yet knowing he had lost the right of survival. It became apparent at the very end that the mother knew of the man in the well and it was her loss too. Do you think the father put him there?"
-Jackie Pakos

In response to my mother's interpretation of the story, I found it very interesting that she viewed the whole situation as a game. I agree with her belief that the children did not feel as though they were not doing anythinig wrong by not getting adult help. Instead, they turned their visits with the man into a game by asking him numerous questions every day. In return, the man asked the children numerous questions. The children often answered the man's questions, but the man never once answered the children's questions. The fact that the man never establishes a real conversation between himself and the children reinforces my idea that he is imaginary.

By further discussing the story, my mother claims to believe that the narrator's mother was having an affair and her husband put the man in the well. My mother fully believes that the man in the well is real. She provides a possible explanation as to why the narrator's mother is crying. In my previous responses to the story, I never established a possible explanation for this critical part of the story. I only asked questions that I could not answer. I do not think there is enough evidence to support her idea, but I believe it to be a definite possibility since there are two particular instances in the story where the mother is upset, one of which consists of the father's stubborn murmur in response to her weeping.

After my mother read the story, I asked her if she enjoyed it and she said, "Yes, but who is the man in the well?" I responded to her question by asking her the same thing. After all, the title of the story is "The Man in the Well." We both had questions about his role in the story. While my mother provided reasons for his actual existence, I stated my belief that he was simply a figure of each child's imagination. Both opinions are plausible, but the major flaw that exists in my idea is the absense of an explanation for why the narrator's mother is upset. The two themes that I identified in my earlier responses can be concluded from both opinions. I previously stated that if the man in the well is imaginary, his purpose in the story is to do nothing more than illustrate the topic of identity that exists in young children; however, if the man in the well is real, the topic of identity still exists in the story. The man's purpose in this case is to create conflicts of indentity within the children by persistently saying each child's name and asking them numerous questions without ever answering their questions. Whether you are a nine year old child, a twenty year old college student, or the parent of a twenty year old college student, you cannot help but wonder throughout the entire story and even after the story has ended, "Who is the man in the well?" Ultimately, it is up to the individual reader to decide.