Why is The School a good fiction?

The School by Donald Barthelme is a short story that depicts a group of kids face deaths in the school. As a reader, I feel confused when I finished the first read. The fiction mentioned the kids face “death” many times, and I don’t understand the implication. The confusing plots attract my attention because I want to figure these out.

When I second time read this fiction, I realized the different propositions of adults and children. Teachers use the proposition of adults to educate their students. Obviously, it is not efficient educational method because kids have their own proposition.  When kids ask the narrator where the trees, the snakes, the herb gardens, the gerbils, the mice, the salamander, the tropical fish, the puppy, the grandparents, the poppas and mommas, Matthew and Tony go, the narrator can’t answer them. “…is death that which gives meaning to life?” Kids don’t really realize the meaning of death, but their innocent words bring hope to the readers. Besides, their words give me a new meaning about death that death also means rebirth.

The narrator narrates the story in first person, and he’s words are verbal. Therefore, the readers will feel as if they are having communication with the narrator face to face. This narrative method makes the distance between the narrator and readers are much closer.

This is a good fiction because it’s close narrative tone, thoughtful words and positive implication.