Compare And Contrast Tobias Wolff And Today Will Be A Quiet Day

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Most people on this earth, at one point or another, has had either a biological father or maybe even a “father figure” in their lives, whether for the entirety of their lives or maybe for a short period of time. Many have had fathers that have stayed with them, while others may have left their families for financial or other reasons. There are good fathers, but sadly there are bad fathers. Two stories we read in class involve fathers, “Powder” by Tobias Wolff and Amy Hempel’s “Today Will Be a Quiet Day”, and although they are about father figures in the lives of children, they both take very different approaches to this topic. Both stories share many similarities. First off, the main similarity is that both stories are about mistake-filled …show more content…
It is a classic example of the phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover” in that the day was anything but quiet. The title suggests that the day would be one of relaxation and quiet time. The father had good intentions to bring the family together for a time of relaxation, but those intentions failed. All throughout the trip, the children argue and fight back and forth, which suggests that the day will not be nearly as quiet as the father had hoped. We learn that the boy had just lost a really close friend to suicide, who was mentally ill, and he tries to redirect his feelings and emotions by teasing his sister. By the time lunch rolls around, both children are on the verge of becoming uncontrollable, and their father attempts to calm them both down by telling them that "Maybe we could try a little quiet today." The girl replies, "You sound like your tombstone. Remember what you wanted it to say?" Her brother joins in by saying, "Today will be a quiet day. Because it never is around us." (1204). However, things turn again when the daughter asks if anyone remembered to feed their dog. The boy did not and immediately thinks about their previous dog, who was put to sleep, bringing death back into the picture. We get a greater understanding about the type of father the dad is when, while at lunch, the two kids were fighting and the he

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