Leo Keeps Things Real

In Carson McCullers' A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud. we are thrust into a very strange few hours of a young boy's life. In the story an old man convinces the boy to listen to his ramblings. They are not the only characters who influence the story though. There are many people in the diner but the one character who truly altered the story was Leo. Leo is the "bitter and stingy man" (27) who owns the all-night cafe.
The old man has the most dialogue followed by the young boy and his questions. Leo, though, is always reliable to interject at any point in the old man's story. It was these interjections that caused me to agree with the young boy in the fact that the old man must be a lunatic. While the old man was talking and espousing all his scientific knowledge onto the young boy I occasionally found myself getting caught up in his speech as well. It was interesting and seemed reasonable to an extent. But then Leo would burst in with phrases like "Some night you'll go to sleep with your big nose in a mug and drown" (28) or a blunt "Shut up! Shut up!" (32). After these outbursts I would feel almost sheepish that I had gotten so involved with the old mans speech. It is as if the old man's words lift us up but then Leo's harsh interjections bring us back to Earth.
Leo is placed strategically throughout the story. It seems like the old man is always reaching a key point in his speech when Leo interrupts and ruins the flow of his words. The old man does not appear to be too phased by these interruptions and just shrugs it off and almost always keeps his focus entirely on the boy. For this reason I almost feel more inclined to look down upon the old man and his story because Leo is constantly poking and prodding him but it does not phase him. If it were not for Leo, this story would have a very different tone and the boy probably would have perceived the old man's story differently.