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
The narrator faces an internal Man vs. Himself conflict in “A Secret Lost in the Water” when he realizes that he no longer remembers his father’s gift. “Somewhere along the roads I’d taken since the village of my childhood I had forgotten my father’s knowledge. ‘Don’t feel sorry… nowadays fathers can’t pass on anything to the next generation’” (Carrier, 96). This impacts the narrator because it gives him a sense of regret. Consequently, the statement made him feel like he, who is a father now himself, may not be able to pass down any of his knowledge to his kids. Although, this teaches him that it is important to hold onto certain knowledge passed down because it is the only way that it can be remembered and preserved.
In a world full of novelty, guidance is essential to whether a being’s character progresses positively or negatively in society. Parents have a fundamental role in the development of their children. A parent’s devotion or negligence towards their child will foster a feeling of trust or mistrust in the latter. This feeling of mistrust due to the lack of guidance from a parental figure is represented in the relationship between Victor Frankenstein and his creation in Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein. The creature created by Frankenstein was shown hatred and disgust from the very beginning, which led to its indignant feelings toward his creator and his kind.
The emotional support children receive from their parents in the early years of their lives can make an everlasting impact in how their fears develop and persist over the course of their lives. Take, for instance, a considerably difficult a child who received a nurturing amount of support from his parents in contrast with another little boy who was physically reprimanded for his antsy behavior. The first boy’s parent’s found tactful ways to allow their child to better handle his fears, consequently allowing him to forge a more functional life in the future. In opposition, the other child’s father, who hit him in efforts to stop his anxiety, ironically contributed to the child’s unwanted behavior, causing him to become more disruptive and disturbed in the
It is not always easy to steer a child towards the right path, sometimes they do as they please, and sometimes it is the parents that make a mistake. No sons or daughters truly understand their parents’ choices until they have reached maturity. For example, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novel Frankenstein can be interpreted as a metaphor of a kid defying his parents’ wishes and going into a teenage crisis asserting his rights over them. If the novel is deconstructed we can identify the different stages of the creature’s life mirroring the stages towards adulthood; First there is the first actions of the child and how the parent reacts to it, in second there is the learning phase where he acquires awareness of his surroundings and consequences of his actions and third is the child’s revolt against the authority figure as he attains maturity and finally the reconciliation between father and son as the wrong is being atoned for.
Throughout the whole story the children would constantly be starved and forced to live in very uncomfortable living conditions. The parents were always the root of the problems that the children had to live through. Yet, the children would always get by, because the dad would spread a sense of false hope at an attempt to make the children feel better. For Example, the dad would always promise them that he was working on a device that
Parenting is a challenge if you have to adapt and change to accommodate your child's needs. You may need to change what has worked before and the only way you know how from watching how your parents raise you. A father may have expectations for his daughter that she is not able to fulfill. In William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, Baptista is and impulsive, biased and uncaring father because he wanted Katherina and he also takes part in a bet at the end of the play.
In the first 20 seconds of the match, I had the first take-down. I was working crossfaces, cheap tilts, and everything else I knew after my takedown. Then, I did what I do best and gave him a swift, hard crossface and cradeled him up. Squeezing with all my strength and might it took about 7 seconds of him being on his back and he was pinned! It took a total of 55 seconds to pin my first opponent at state.
A fighter punches to hurt and disable his opponent. Gloves are worn to protect the fist, not the brain. Some fights are such patent mismatches that the crowd is not paying to watch a competitive battle; its paying to watch [ a blood match]”(Hauser,6). Ever since C.T.E. was discovered, many have wondered if boxing should be banned due to the dangers involved. Many came to its defense saying that there are deaths in other sports as well; if there are deaths and risks in other sports, why should just boxing be banned? But why fight? Why risk death or serious mental injury? Thomas Hauser asked a couple retired boxers to find out. Some of them do it for the money, while others do it for the fame. The up and coming boxers recall going to the gym with a trail of kids behind him, offering to carry their bag; admiration twinkling in their eyes. Maybe some of like to fight because they are good at it. Everyone wants to be good at something, some people are just good at punching people. Others do it because they feel like they are someone, they matter. It is the first time that people notice them as a person and are interested in what they have to say and who they are. “It makes me feel big”, says middleweight champion Vito Antuofermo. He goes on by comparing bringing the most beautiful girl to the school dance and feeling
CLAP, CLAP, CLAP, CLAP, echoes through my head as I walk to the middle of the mat. "At 160lbs Aidan Conner of La Junta vs. Rodney Jones of Hotchkiss." All I can think of is every bead of sweat, every drip of blood, every mile, every push up, every tear. Why? All of this: just to be victorious. All in preparation for one match, six minutes. For some these six minutes may only be a glimpse, and then again for some it may be the biggest six minutes of their life. Many get the chance to experience it more than once. Some may work harder and want it more than others, but they may never get the chance. All they get is a moral victory. Every kid, every man comes into the tournament with a goal. For some is to win, for some is to place, others are just happy to qualify. These six minutes come on a cold frigid night in February at a place called the Pepsi Center. Once a year this gathering takes place when the small and the large, the best of the best, come to compete in front thousands of people. I am at the Colorado State Wrestling Championships.
The fear of failure has been implemented into child-hood, as it is the most influential time in a persons life. Santiago’s society taught people from young ages, that your dreams are impossible to achieve. This thinking habit imposed by society would influence the child’s life by letting them grow up not believing in themselves or their abilities. This thinking habit was passed down to Santiago by his own father, who tried to talk him out of the one thing he truely wanted to do in life; travel. “ ‘People from all over the world have passed through this village, son,’ said his father. ‘They come in search of new things, but when they leave they are basically the same people they were when they arrived.’ ” (pg 9) Your family should support your dreams, but because society imprints false ideologies into people, Santiago’s father convinces him to give up on his dreams. Even though Santiago’s father wanted “to travel the world” (pg 9-10) too, he didn’t have the courage to do so which influenced his life by “having had to bury it, over dozens of years,”. Santiago was young and impressionable at the time, and so when his very own father doubted his ability to be able to achieve his dreams, Santiago too grew up to doubt himself. This then influenced Santiago to try to bury his own life callings when faced with his Personal Legend. He used excused, “But there’s a tribal war”, (pg 115) “I
The story provides many sources for the boy's animosity. Beginning with his home and overall environment, and reaching all the way to the adults that surround him. However, it is clear that all of these causes of the boy's isolation have something in common, he has control over none of these factors. While many of these circumstances no one can expect to have control over, it is the culmination of all these elements that lead to the boy’s undeniable feeling of lack of control.
The father did not want the boy to see those things because the boy always shunned his father after those situations. The father was also over protected because he did not want anything to happen to the boy he wanted to keep him as safe as
A father is someone who protects, loves, supports and raises his children, whether they are biologically related or not. Every single person living on the Earth has a biological father. These biological fathers are supposed to take the responsibility of being a father because they did help bring a child into this world. One of the main responsibilities of a father is providing the child with the necessities of life, which include food, shelter, and clothes. Not only is a father responsible for the physical aspect but the emotional aspect as well. Children need to feel loved, cared for, and emotional support from their parents. A child needs to be reassured, so a father must show his affection, both physically and emotionally. A father needs to be involved in his children’s life. He needs to be a problem solver, playmate, provider, preparer, and he has to have principles. A father has to pr...