use of parenthesis

On page 265 Wright uses parenthesis to show that he is talking out of context about his feelings of uncertainty about his place in life. By doing this he separates himself from the story, and it shows that he is talking about this after thinking back over years of life. He isn’t speaking as the worried, harried boy, but as a man with many more years of experience under his belt.
Also, the style of writing changes and he uses more metaphors and seems to think more deeply about what he’s talking about. You can tell he is talking from a more mature point of view in these paragraphs. Also, I thought I was interesting that in all of the passages he starts with a (but doesn’t have a) at the end of his aside. Instead, he just moves on to the next paragraph.