Doug Swieteck's Father In Okay For Now

From the first few chapters of Okay for Now to the last, Doug Swieteck’s father changed from being the bad guy to the good. The author, Gary D. Schmidt illustrates in his book that you change change to be the better person. His father overcomes many challenges to be as considerate to his family as he can and he did so towards the end. In the first few chapters of Okay for Now, Doug’s dad was commonly known as the selfish one in the family. His father “came home on the night of my twelfth birthday” and “missed everything because he had been with Ernie Eco.” (pg. 145) At some times, Doug was physically hit by his own father. It had happened even when he was trying to help his mother on page 9, “I started up the porch to help but my father smacked me on the shoulder.” Doug was just trying to lend a hand to his mother to help her carry flower pots while Mr. Swieteck disagreed. …show more content…
On page 12, Mrs. Swieteck tries to explain to Doug’s father that the Ballard Paper Mill wouldn’t be open and he responds with, “What did she know about anything and left with Ernie Eco.” It seemed like Doug’s father was making an effort to imply that Doug’s mother was dumb. Then in some other parts of Okay for Now, it hinted that Doug’s father would even get physically aggressive with his mother. Page 24 explains that “my father came home with Ernie Eco. Walked into the wet kitchen… and was gone before whatever happened happened.” Whatever happened happened could have signified that since Mr. Swieteck came home to the kitchen being a mess that she would be hurt in some way. But in spite of Doug’s father being careless to his family throughout the majority of the book, he gradually started to change to be more of a mature and thoughtful