Critical Thinking Question #2: Tales of the Madman Underground

In Tales of the Madman Underground, by John Barnes, the therapy group nick-named “The Madmen Underground” is full of people with tough lives and back-stories. Even if those kids need therapy, they are often placed there automatically because of what has happened to them in the past, or because they are seen doing something that defines them as “insane” or “crazy” by teachers, but those people don’t always have the right to judge someone, especially if it isn’t the child’s fault.

I think this situation is really unfair because of the way the members of the Madmen Underground are being treated. All of those kids are there because they are thought to be “crazy” by one teacher or another. But what deems someone to be crazy? Some of the kids in the Madmen group are given the ticket to therapy because something terrible happened to their family, for example Paul, who’s mom was run over by a car, instantly earning him a ticket to the therapy classes. But while something traumatic like that is very harsh to a young child, that doesn’t automatically mean they are crazy.

Other kids have been put in the group because they were seen crying in class, which brings me to my next point. The pressure that many are feeling at home is unhealthy, and that’s what causes the kids to be stressed, or become depressed, or to have these “crying jags” at school. For example, the main character Karl has been living without a father for 3 ½ years and with a mother who creates even more work for him. Though while narrating, Karl never complains about it, I don’t think he enjoys having to mature so quickly, having to make the money and then pay the bills, and it just causes more stress in his life. I don’t think it is fair that kids like him and the other Madmen have to take on 7 odd jobs to take care of people who don’t deserve it, just because they are their “parent”. For most of the kids, their mom (or dad) are blood related to them, but again that doesn’t make them a parent. If the adult figure is not present or more of a burden than the child, I don’t believe they qualify as a parent, let alone a caring one. And most of all, I don’t think these kids should have to suffer because of their parents mistakes.

While many of the Madmen may be working multiple jobs and being the adult figure in their lives as a “defense mechanism” because they don’t have anything else to protect them, others may be doing it because they have no choice. Kind of like the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” a person’s back-story may not be a sign that they need help. I’m not saying that they don’t either. But the story is often more complicated than a simple, “they’re crazy.”