Who Is The Son In Chris Crutcher's The Pin

The Pin by Chris Crutcher tells the story of a boy and his father who go against each other in a wrestling match. The father, a strict, disciplinary guardian who was number two wrestler at his university, fears that he will always be number two. The son, a rebellious teenager who feels like he is never good enough, hopes that his father will finally accept him for who he is. The son, Johnny, ends up winning the match, but the father is not happy with him. The father slaps Johnny, in front of three hundred people. The father later apologized, explaining that his father had done that to him when he was a boy, and that he had hoped that it would never happen to his son. The father is a fearful character because of his need to be better than everyone …show more content…
When the father slaps his son, he is doing it out of fear that his son will be better than him. He is scared that there will always be someone better than him. He used violence so that it would not seem like his son was better than him. Inside he was starting to realize that his son is better than him. He did not want those three hundred people to think that he was not the best. Crutcher writes, “Three-year three-sport letterman at Coho High School in the mid-1950s and number two wrestler at 177 at the university of oklahoma after that. Number two is mysteriously absent from his version.” In the father’s wrestling career he was always number two, and not the best. He is scared of that, especially if it is his son who is better than him. This proves that the father is a fearful character because he is scared of being weak, and not being the …show more content…
In the story, the father is the boss, and it is not okay if he is not in control. When he is not in control, he gets frustrated, and kind of dangerous. This need for control comes from his fear of embarrassment, and his fear of not being right. He feels that he is not always right, but if he is in control then people will not question if he is right or wrong, and he will not be embarrassed. Crutcher writes, “It’s just that when he thinks he’s not in control of everything, he gets kind of dangerous. I think nobody told him when he wanted to have kids-a decision made in a state of a severe deprivation, according to the family myth-that they’d want to be in control, too.” The father is scared of not being in control, and not being right. No one will notice that he is not right if he is in control, and therefore he will not be embarrassed. This proves that the father is fearful because he is embarrassed of himself, and his mistakes. He is scared that people will not think of him as the best if he makes mistakes, or is not