Aimee Bender's story "The Leading Man" is not as unusual as many of her other pieces. To me it represents a story of a normal man, with a unique talent going through life. Each and every person on this planet is unique or different in some way, which leads to how we live our lives. Our uniqueness sets us on a path for the rest of our lives. In my opinion the title represents a lot about the message of the author. "The Leading Man", a man that sets out on a path with his own talent (keys as fingers), he leads his life with his own options and choices.
On a different note, the white light that the father always complains about seems more important then its made out to be. I'm not 100 percent sure what it represents, but because he was away at war it reminds me of something like shell shock. Also it reminds of the brother in "The Red Convertible" and how war changes a person. We are unaware of the relationship between the father and son before the father goes to war, but assume that they were very close, and then the father goes off to war and comes back very different. The war makes him unable to be aware of his sons accomplishments of becoming a hero and appears that he doesn't fully understand the special talent that his son has. (Shawn Parkhurst, 13)
I find it interesting that you thought this story was less unusual than the other Bender stories we read despite the fact that our main character has keys for fingers. I do think you are on to something with your comments on the father's illness. Bender seems to be taking a real condition such as shell shock and transposing it into a "magical" illness within her fictional world. It seems important to consider what the father's illness allows us to better understand about the leading man himself.
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