The Littlest Hitler by Ryan Boudinot
Literary Analysis

The Littlest Hitler is an American short story, which, in brief, is about Davy, a young boy who has chosen to dress up as Hitler for the annual Halloween parade at his school. When his classmates find out what kind of person Hitler actually was, Davy suddenly feels excluded in his class, and he regrets his choice of costume. Davy’s guilt does not go away, and he ends up reaching his arm into the stove. While the major focus in The Littlets Hitler is on Davy and the guilt he is feeling, the symbols are significant for out interpretation of the story.

It is obvious that Davy is not aware of most people’s hatred towards Hitler. As a kid he might not have the same background knowledge as grown-ups do, which is the reason why he feels such an excitement about wearing his costume. He was just thinking, like every other fourth-grader would do, that it was a scary and obvious costume. What gets clear through the story is that Davy suddenly feels a lot of guilt because of the costume that he is wearing. When his teacher, Mrs Thompson asks him if he can tell the class what he knows about Hitler, he clearly does not want to tell what kind of people Hitler killed. Instead he replies that he killed “everybody”. He does not want to spell out, that he actually killed millions of Jews. The reason to this might be Lisette’s costume as a Jew, and therefor he does not want to get a bad reputation among his school friends. Moreover it seems like Davy, despite his age now, still feels a bit of anger towards Lisette. The whole story is a retelling from Davy’s point of view, and his comments might be comments from the time where he is retelling it. When Davy tells about Lisette, there is a lot of irritation attached to the way he describes her. For instance he describes her “Austrian looking frock” where after he says “or whatever you call it”. His use of words as “whatever”, when he mentions Lisette, indicates that, despite the fact that this happened in his childhood, he can still feel the anger. It is worth mentioning that Davy definitely has a close relationship with his father. The first passage, where the father helps Davy with his costume tells us that he wants to do anything to make his son’s Halloween successful. His father’s disappointment about the classmates’ reactions to Davy’s costume also indicates that he has a great interest in Davy’s life. What is notable in the story is when Davy says that he would “make (his) father angry” if he handed the Friedlander kids his bag of candy. Davy clearly wants to do something nice for them, so what could stand in the way of handing over his bag of candy? This comment could indicate that his father maybe has too much “good will” towards his, according to the text, only child, Davy. This love might be so big that he cannot see the situation from more than one side. Davy, on the other hand, seems like a very sympathetic character because of his thoughtful way of thinking.

In the story, there are some notable symbols, which have a great significance for our understanding of the message. As mentioned, Davy feels a lot of guilt and in the end of the story it still seems like he cannot get rid of this guilt. Before the Halloween parade, Davy puts on his “black rubber boots (he) had to wear whenever (he) played outside”. The fact that he is putting on some shoes that he also wears when he is the playful kid “Davy”, makes the character Hitler become a part of his self that he cannot leave. In some kind of way, he is connected to these boots, even though he has taken off his moustache and armband. Therefore, the bad conscience stays in his mind.
The guilt also gets clear, when Davy reaches his arm into the stove to see when the pain starts. In this section, the fire can be seen as a symbol of punishment. Davy does not feel like he deserves the candy, and therefor he puts his arm into the fire. His actions might also symbolize that he is trying to get rid of “Hitler”. A part of him still feels connected to his costume and the shame he felt the whole day. Davy tries to get rid of this shame.

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