Family relationships can become difficult and troubled, especially when death comes around. Sometimes the distance between love and trust on one side, and hatred on the other, can be incredible short. The short story “Father and son” tells a story about a troubled relationship between a father and his son. The father lives alone with the adult son, as the mother has passed away some years before the period covered by the short story.
The story takes place in Belfast, in the period where the religious conflicts between Protestants and Catholics where very dramatic. The connection to this historical conflict and the short story is to be seen in the way the son is often going out at night, and how the father is concerned for the life of his boy. …show more content…
In there earlier years when his son was just a boy, the father is telling a story of how he was teaching him to fly fish – a love that at that at the time is understood to be mutual – and a love still present from the father’s side later in the short story. It is clear where the son awake in bed in the morning knows, that the father going to the sons door , once to check that he is home, and a second time wanting to talk to the son to know what he is doing at night, and who he was with.
It is indicated, that the dead of the mother is linked to the conflict between Protestants and Catholics in the sentence “Is it my fault that a good woman should die?” also indicating, that this is the reason for the sons involvement in the conflict.
The father is in great fear of his son’s life – and does not sleep at night. Breakfast is replaced by tea and some valiums. A close to dead incident is also described – something I understand of being linked to the son taking …show more content…
At once he even states “My mother is dead but I have another in her place. He is an old woman” referring to his father – and where he describes the father’s routines in the house he finishes “Mice have more courage”. Although the son has lost his respect to his father, he is showing in a few places that he is concerned for his father’s health. It is showed when talking about the fathers eating and sleeping habits and in the section talking about old days. “He has been crying. I know he prays for me all the time.”
In the end of the story we are told, that the son has been out for 2 days without coming home, and that the father when hearing a description of someone dying a night, he is sure that it is his son, but the son returns the same afternoon still not ready to talk to his father of his doings and his concerns.
The reason to the distance between father and son can be because of the loss of the mother. If the mother has had the family role of being the connection between the father and son, the death of her can symbolize the loss of the love in the family. The patterns of the family are therefore suddenly
The story takes place in Belfast, in the period where the religious conflicts between Protestants and Catholics where very dramatic. The connection to this historical conflict and the short story is to be seen in the way the son is often going out at night, and how the father is concerned for the life of his boy. …show more content…
In there earlier years when his son was just a boy, the father is telling a story of how he was teaching him to fly fish – a love that at that at the time is understood to be mutual – and a love still present from the father’s side later in the short story. It is clear where the son awake in bed in the morning knows, that the father going to the sons door , once to check that he is home, and a second time wanting to talk to the son to know what he is doing at night, and who he was with.
It is indicated, that the dead of the mother is linked to the conflict between Protestants and Catholics in the sentence “Is it my fault that a good woman should die?” also indicating, that this is the reason for the sons involvement in the conflict.
The father is in great fear of his son’s life – and does not sleep at night. Breakfast is replaced by tea and some valiums. A close to dead incident is also described – something I understand of being linked to the son taking …show more content…
At once he even states “My mother is dead but I have another in her place. He is an old woman” referring to his father – and where he describes the father’s routines in the house he finishes “Mice have more courage”. Although the son has lost his respect to his father, he is showing in a few places that he is concerned for his father’s health. It is showed when talking about the fathers eating and sleeping habits and in the section talking about old days. “He has been crying. I know he prays for me all the time.”
In the end of the story we are told, that the son has been out for 2 days without coming home, and that the father when hearing a description of someone dying a night, he is sure that it is his son, but the son returns the same afternoon still not ready to talk to his father of his doings and his concerns.
The reason to the distance between father and son can be because of the loss of the mother. If the mother has had the family role of being the connection between the father and son, the death of her can symbolize the loss of the love in the family. The patterns of the family are therefore suddenly