Warren Pryor Analysis

Superior Essays
Parents and their children hold a very distinct relationship with each other. Parents are predestined to guide their child, and to show the support that the child needs to fulfill their potential. The manner in which a parent raises a child is subjective for every parental figure as well; they will undoubtedly enforce what they believe to be morally correct, without regard to what other individuals may believe. However, whether the connection is between a mother and a child, a father and a child, or both: the bond between these individuals is entirely more profound than friendship, and therefore, more vulnerable to difficulty. Texts such as “The Boat” by Alistair Macleod, “Warren Pryor” by Alden Nowlan, and “Like Him” by Aaron Smith explore …show more content…
During these stages, a child is dependent and impressionable, and therefore, any conflict is especially harmful. “Like Him” by Aaron Smith, and “Warren Pryor” by Alden Nowlan are two texts that demonstrate the delicate balance between intentional and unintentional harm, with regards to deep-rooted beliefs. The parents depicted in “Warren Pryor” are undeniably of good heart, which the parents prove when they “slav[e] to free [Warren] from the stony fields” of the family’s farm, in order to give Warren a proper education (Nowlan). Moreover, Nowlan allows the reader to infer that the Pryor family is religious when, in an enjambment, he states: “Sundays. He was Saved”. The specifics of Warren’s family given by the author emphasize the fact that Warren’s parents intend to aid Warren in his future endeavours— that the resentment Warren feels for his parents was undeniably fashioned on accident. However, in “Like Him”, the narrator’s father is not oblivious to his actions; rather, the father is persistent on resenting the narrator. The narrator does not embody his father’s deep-rooted image of a ‘true man’, nor does the narrator act like one, and therefore, the father is constantly displaying no signs of affection, appreciation, or acceptance towards him. The father is described as “disappointed” after the narrator quits basketball, and indifferent as he and the narrator purchase a tractor together. Even after the narrator attempts to “tal[k] deeper” and “ac[t] tougher”, the father continuously criticises and humiliates the narrator by preferring to devote time to “friends who had sons like [the father] wanted”, instead the narrator. At the age of forty, the narrator is left with a sole memory from who was intended to mentor him: how to “fight like his father, like him, like men” (Smith). Through the obliviousness of Warren’s parents, and the relentlessness of the narrator’s father, Smith and Nowlan

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