Throughout all texts we have read, we have encountered a selection of antipathetic characters. Part of what makes these stories so compelling is the presence of these characters that not only challenge the protagonist’s, but also our own moral limits. Emma in God is Not a Fish Inspector, Cameron and Val in Forgiveness in Families, Laird and the father in Boys and Girls, are all examples of antipathetic characters that help us understand the plight of the protagonist. While each of these characters presents their own particular features that make them easy to dislike, Ross in The Day They Set Out and the mother in The Metaphor are the two that I find most repulsive. In each of their stories, these two have a power over the protagonist that they
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The mother in The Metaphor is not the same brand of evil as Ross is and yet she is almost as hateful. Like Ross, she projects emotional detachment upon the protagonist. Her coldness, which is inherently part of her personality, is unintentionally depriving her daughter. We recognize that it’s a character trait and not done on purpose yet it’s the mother's lack of self-awareness that makes her so despicable.This is most evident in the last few paragraphs when Charlotte is clearly having an emotional breakdown yet all her mother can do is fix her nail beds and say “I’ll have to ask you to stop this nonsense. You’re disturbing the even tenor of our home.” In context, this quote exemplifies everything wrong with the relationship between the mother and Charlotte as it shows us the deep emotional void which the mother is completely incapable of filling. We wonder if the mother had been different, more loving and warm, if maybe Charlotte would have treated Ms Hancock with more kindness in high school and that maybe she wouldn’t have been driven to suicide. It’s speculation yet Charlotte’s detachment from her beloved teacher is disturbingly like something her mother would do to her if the roles were reversed. We see the mother’s glacial attitude in everything from how Charlotte cleans the bathtub to the obvious disapproval of the trophy awarded to Ms Hancock in elementary school and because of this, we see Charlotte as a damaged person at the end of the story. Because of her mother’s deprivation, she’s become a weakened person struggling to come to terms with the death of the one person who gave her the emotional validation she
The mother in The Metaphor is not the same brand of evil as Ross is and yet she is almost as hateful. Like Ross, she projects emotional detachment upon the protagonist. Her coldness, which is inherently part of her personality, is unintentionally depriving her daughter. We recognize that it’s a character trait and not done on purpose yet it’s the mother's lack of self-awareness that makes her so despicable.This is most evident in the last few paragraphs when Charlotte is clearly having an emotional breakdown yet all her mother can do is fix her nail beds and say “I’ll have to ask you to stop this nonsense. You’re disturbing the even tenor of our home.” In context, this quote exemplifies everything wrong with the relationship between the mother and Charlotte as it shows us the deep emotional void which the mother is completely incapable of filling. We wonder if the mother had been different, more loving and warm, if maybe Charlotte would have treated Ms Hancock with more kindness in high school and that maybe she wouldn’t have been driven to suicide. It’s speculation yet Charlotte’s detachment from her beloved teacher is disturbingly like something her mother would do to her if the roles were reversed. We see the mother’s glacial attitude in everything from how Charlotte cleans the bathtub to the obvious disapproval of the trophy awarded to Ms Hancock in elementary school and because of this, we see Charlotte as a damaged person at the end of the story. Because of her mother’s deprivation, she’s become a weakened person struggling to come to terms with the death of the one person who gave her the emotional validation she