Study Guide

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party Part 1, Chapter 16

By M.T. Anderson

Part 1, Chapter 16

Don't pity Octavian—he was a lucky boy… or, that's what Octavian wants you to know anyway.
He knows people make think his childhood was totally weird, but he looks back on it as a time of plenty.
After all, he got to read, think, play music, hold his mother's hand… totally different from all the other slaves, who lived in crappy conditions and were treated like animals.
Back then, he had two selves—the one who might cry and the one who Observed coldly.
So even though he cried from time to time as a kid, he also learned how to detach from his crying self too.
That's the big Eye that watched him as he grew up—his own self.

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