The Boat: The Pursuit of Self- Fulfilment

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. In the short story The Boat, written by Canadian author Alistair Macleod, the main storyline revolves around the idea of self-fulfillment and the factors that affect one’s path to achieving it. The story bases itself off of a families pursuit of self-fulfillment within each individual and the limitations that obstructs their opportunities of achieving it. The main character, the Son, is faced with an internal conflict between choosing what his aspirations in life will truly will be. Two very influential characters that affect his decisions include the mother, who is very strong willed in what she believed, and his Father. The Father, who was the complete opposite of the mother, emotionally forced his son to deter from fishing which ultimately decided the fate of the son’s idea of self-fulfillment. These characters in the son’s life influenced him to either decide between following through with the concept of staying at home and continuing the fishing family tradition that is forced upon by the mother or education. Education being that it will guarantee a more desirable and easy life in contrast to fishing. A large factor that relates to all the character’s in the short story is that they are dominantly impacted by the environment that they reside in. Through this type of environment Macleod utilizes this effectively to influence each character’s idea of self- fulfillment. Overall, it is clear that one can not fully achieve uttermost self - fulfillment but nevertheless one’s perspective is the dictator of what self - fulfillment truly means to themselves.

Macleod described the pursuit of not only one individual's satisfaction of self-fulfillment but the sacrifices that were made in order to ensure the fulfilment of another. T...

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...d the perspective of the Mother which also changed her idea of what self-fulfillment may mean to her. In conclusion, it is clear, the type of environment affects perspective while perspective is what affects one’s view of self fulfillment.

The Father gave up his chances at self-fulfillment so that his children can have a better chance at fulfilling their ambitions and goals other than fishing. Although the father did not want to stop his son from fishing if that was his goal, he did not want his son to end up like himself emotionally and mentally. In contrast, two factors worked contrary to the Father, the environment in which the family lived in and the Mother. Both narrowed the opportunities for self-fulfillment for the son and daughter. In conclusion, it is clear that one the environment greatly affects one’s perspective on what self-fulfillment means to them.

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