Esther Keseday

October 22,2016
Close Reading of a Text

Lizard Man

David Poissants Lizard Man, takes place in the late 1990s and early 2000s in

the city of St. Petersburg Florida and Lee Floridae. This story is about two men who

literally wrestle an alligator while figuratively wrestling with the burdens and regrets of

fatherhood.The Narrator is a hardened, working-class father in south Florida struggling

with the memory of finding his teenage son,Jack, kissing another boy (Alan) , the shock

of which led to a violent confrontation that destroyed his relationships with both his son

and his wife. In the end he served time in prison as his wife divorces him and takes his

son to Baton Rouge. The story starts when Cam, the Narrator best pal, and his son

Bobby show up at the Narrators house. Cam asks him for a ride from St. Petersburg

Florida to Lee Florida to attend to his fathers, Red, house after his death. Cam leaves

Bobby with television and tapes to keep content as he travels. Cam and his father had

never got along and his father abused him growing up. As they are traveling they asked

a young lady for direction to Reds house, in response she referred to him as the Lizard

Man. As they got to the house they realized how messy the house was except the

television, which clean. Both decided that the television was going back with them, Cam

walks into Reds room and finds a shoebox, and as he walks out into the backyard he

find an alligator in a makeshift cage. The alligator was beyond sick Everywhere there

are flies and gnats. They fly into his open mouth and and land on his teeth. Others land

on the open sores along his back (10). Cam thinks it's a they should take the alligator

somewhere else and after much argument they decided to relocate it. They find rotten

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October 22,2016
Close Reading of a Text

meat and use it as bait to tape the alligator's mouth and move him onto the bed of the

truck. As they are trying to entrap the alligator, the Narrator thinks of his Jack, whom he

hasn't seen in a year. As this stories continues, mother nature starts intervening with a

hurricane. They place the alligator in the truck and Cam decides to place it at the golf

course, which he worked at some years ago. When they release the alligator, the

Narrator starts to cry, he becomes emotional. After the alligator disappears back into the

wild, both men return to St. Petersburg, but on the way Cam tries to convince the

Narrator that maybe Jack being gay is not all bad. Cam warns him to not be late, he lies

about calling Red, prior to his death, and actually called him dad and Red hangs up on

him. When they get back to town, Bobby is crying and Cam runs out and hugs him. The

Narrator looks at the shoebox that is left behind and realized that they are letters written

by Red and addressed to Cam, who returned the letters unopened. The Narrator

realized that Cam never forgave Red for all the years of abuse and now it is too late to

make up for it. The story ends with the Narrator racing against the storm to Baton

Rouge to reunite with Jack.

Throughout this story there are many themes: perseverance, forgiveness or lack

of, abuse, and acceptance. One argument that could be made from this story would be

no matter how rough things are, you are able to overcome them which falls under

perseverance. The two primary characters of the story, the Narrator and Cam, both

went through difficult incidents but handled it differently which made the end result

completely different. The Narrator walked in on his son, Jack fooling around with his

friend Alan, which ended up with Jack thrown out of the window and into the yard. With

this action, the Narrator not only lost his son but also his wife and freedom.Throughout

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October 22,2016
Close Reading of a Text

the story the Narrator realizes the mistake that he made and all it would take to see his

family is the acceptance of Jack. The Narrator at the end after releasing the alligator

realizes that he is the only one holding himself back. With the new revelation, he

decides to drive to Baton Rouge I will drive North, following the storm. I will drive

through the wind and rain. I will drive all night(23).

Throughout the story there are things that have a greater meaning than what it is.

The Letters from Red to Cam represents his truce and peace offering, in which Cam

returns without reading. Because of this Cam is inability to forgive Red for the mistakes

he has made over the course of their relationship and now that he is dead, he will never

get the chance again. The alligator to the Narrator will represent Jack. At the first sight

he judged and refused to help but throughout the course of returning it, he bonds with it

to the point where he cries when they release him at the golf course. This made him

realize how hard he was on Jack for being gay, hurting him. At the end he drives

through the storm to fix that relationship. The storm signifies the hardship both men

have been through. In the Narrator perspective, hurting his son and losing him and his

wife, never having peace. He pushes through the storm, which is pushing through all his

judgment he casted on the gay people. In Cam, it was having a father who didn't care,

having a son and turning out to be the exact same. He did not care about leaving Bobby

in the storm by himself but after returning the alligator and then returning home and

seeing his crying face, he hugged him almost like he really did miss him.

In conclusion this story is not about a lizard man but two men that found their

redemption through the works of an alligator. The Narrator finally learned to be

accepting of his son love for boys, forgiving is the only way to move forward. While Cam

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Close Reading of a Text

did not learn to forgive in time, he realized that it always better late than never. He

thought the Narrator unless he wants to have a bitter relationship with his son he should

talk to him and rekindle the relationship.