X: A Fabulous Child's Story Literary Elements

Short story

The story is set in an unnamed town in the 1970s.

The story features an unnamed third-person narrator who explains the events in X's life.

The tone of the story is straightforward and ironic. The mood of the story is whimsical and hopeful.

The central protagonist of the story is X. The central antagonists of the story are the parents of the Other Children.

The major conflict in the story occurs when X goes to school and begins influencing how the Other Children behave. The parents of the Other Children declare that X is a disruption and must be professionally evaluated.

After the psychological examination of X, the psychiatrist remarks that X is "the least mixed-up child" he has ever examined.

When the narrator says that the Joneses specifically want to raise an X, it foreshadows their ongoing support for their child even when faced with conflict.

When the narrator remarks that some prospective families did not understand why the baby had to be named X, she suggests that these families are so influenced by the gender binary that they cannot perceive the existence of a child who is neither boy nor girl.

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Important imagery in the story includes babies, children's clothing, and X's gender-nonconforming appearance.

The central paradox of the story is that X is arguably more emotionally, mentally, and physically stable than any of the Other Children, but the parents are convinced that X is a menace and a disruption to society. At the end of the story, the narrator suggests that it is that mentality of the parents that will cause problems for their own children.

The baby that is born at the end of the story – Y – parallels X and the journey X has already taken.

X is a metonym for a gender-neutral name.

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