Harlan Ellison: Jeffty Is Five. Summary and Analysis
In “Jeffty Is Five,” an adult man named Donald Horton narrates his relationship with Jeffty Kinzer, a boy who, mysteriously, never ages and remains forever five years old. As Donald grows, Jeffty stays the same, preserving not only his childlike appearance but also an inexplicable connection to a vanished cultural past: he listens to old radio shows, receives comics and toys from decades past as though they are current. Donald, torn between his adult life and the magic of Jeffty’s world, revels in that living nostalgia until, through negligence, he exposes him to the present. Jeffty is brutally beaten by some teenagers and, after that event, access to his world disappears. The story ends with Donald overwhelmed and vainly trying to recover that lost connection.