Summary

In the story “Binocular Vision” a ten-year-old boy used his father’s pair of binoculars to spy on his next door neighbors. He watched the daily routine of Mr. and Mrs. Simon for days on end. One morning a pair of policemen called the boy’s father to help them. It turned out that Mr. Simon had committed suicide. The boy was surprised to read in the obituary that Mr. Simon was survived only by his mother. He commented to his mother that he thought the woman with whom Mr. Simon lived was his wife. His mother told him the woman had also thought she was his wife.

Analysis

This is a coming of age story as a young boy learned that things aren’t always as they appear. The boy, who also served as the narrator for this story, had been spying...