Saunders Binary

In the first short story Victory Lap, Saunders underlies the parent/child binary that Jessica Benjamin also discusses. It is clear that when we are in the perspective of Kyle, that his relationship with his parents is an imbalance of power. From the time he gets home from running, he has to do chores that go toward "work points", giving reason to think he is often put to work in the house and under constant watch of his parents. As Benjamin discusses, it is very hard to come to a mutual recognition in the power spectrum. It always seems to either completely flip-flop power rolls, or return to the original power structure after a short time of change. It is especially difficult to decide the correct relationship between parent and child. At what point do they try and mutually recognize each other or when does the child hold the power roll? These questions are nearly impossible to get a right answer for, but in Victory Lap, we are witness to a moment of change or rebellion in the Parent/Child binary.

During the intense narration of Allison being taken hostage by the meter reader guy, Kyle contemplates his roll in the situation, thinking of what his parents would say or how they would react. Eventually, he reaches a breaking point, and runs out the door and across the lawn. During this break for "freedom", he lists off a dozen rules hes breaking, one as simple as crossing into another lawn or being outside with a stranger. Kyle took a step in changing the binary, but as Benjamin discussed, it did not end up as a mutual recognition. He proceeded to save Allison from the man, and then started to fight him. All his emotions ran wild during this moment and as he is beating up the man and Allison wants him to stop, he says "I'm the boss of me". He has crossed over and merely flipped the binary. It is great that he has stood up to his parents rules and recognized himself as a power, but he has taken it too far in becoming the main power and becoming overly self dominant for the moment, all expressing Benjamin's points about rebelling against the binary but taking it too far or retreating back to the "normal" binary.