Character Analysis
The youngest of the three Slocum children, Derek is the only one who is named. Perhaps this is because he is such an anomaly in the household and isn't like the other children at all. Or perhaps it's because he disrupts the normalcy that Slocum so desires for his American family.
Regardless of the fact that Derek is the only Slocum child who's named, Slocum still refers to him as his "idiot child, who also doesn't understand what's going on" (3.71). How kind and loving. Thanks, Dad.
Similar to all the other characters in the book, we only learn about Derek through Slocum's eyes. Wearing our Slocum goggles, we see someone who lacks the capacity to develop beyond a mental age of three or four, "even if he is my own flesh and blood" (3.72). Somebody thinks highly of himself, huh?
What happened to Derek? Nobody knows. Nobody even knew he was different until years after he was born. Slocum claims he loved his son back when he thought he was normal, but once he found out that he was different, he stopped loving him. "We didn't know it either about Derek until he was a few years old, and by then it was too late: we'd already had him; he has already happened" (3.88). World's Best Dad mug's coming your way, Slocum.
Unlike the folks in Slocum's office who go mad, Derek cannot be fixed. He simply is the way he is, and he'll be that way forever. Slocum wishes he could forget about Derek altogether, though it's hard to forget about him for too long. He occupies space in the Slocum household, and especially after the death of Slocum's other son, he's the only remaining male Slocum heir.