Throughout our time here on Earth, we have probably had one or two people tell us to “live in the moment” and to quit worrying about the things we cannot control. The fictitious story, “Powder”, written by Tobias Wolff, exemplifies what this is all about by using a young, conservative, and often times controlling boy in contrast to his older, more fearless father. According to the short story, the boy was someone who “kept all of his clothes on numbered hangers to improve proper rotation and would ask his teacher for homework in advance”, whereas his father flew by the seat of his pants, driving in more dangerous weather conditions, often times breaking the law, and sneaking behind his wife’s back to attend concerts. However, it was on the way back home from a ski trip, that the boy learned from his father the importance of living in the moment, letting go of his perfectionist attitude, and being a bit …show more content…
I need to make sure that I really emphasize the parts of the story that discuss the narrator’s -and father’s- characteristics. Without emphasizing those parts in the story, the moral or lesson loses its meaning. At the end of the story it stated, “If you haven’t drive in fresh powder, you haven’t driven.” To me, this part is not only informing the audience of how hard of a task it really is to drive in virgin snow, but also how it ended up to be a much more enjoyable experience than what he had originally thought as it taught him to just enjoy the ride that life has to offer. It was during that part of the story, he realized to let go and to live in the moment, something he now wants to teach his own family and grandchildren. As a performer, I will alter my tone of voice, sit up further in my chair, and lean forward as if I am speaking directly to my audience. That is the part of the story I need to drive home in order to get the lesson
Personal experiences affect everybody. Just like in the stories “Abuela Invents The Zero” by Ortiz Cofer and “Home” by Anton Chekhov. Constancia and Yevgeny, from the stories, both have small problems that lead to dramatic changes in their values. Constancia values what her peers think of her and Yevgeny values work more than his son. The authors of “Abuela Invents The Zero” and “Home” have both shown how small moments can change a person’s values forever.
When the man and boy meet people on the road, the boy has sympathy for them, but his father is more concerned with keeping them both alive. The boy is able to get his father to show kindness to the strangers (McCarthy), however reluctantly the kindness is given. The boy’s main concern is to be a good guy. Being the good guy is one of the major reasons the boy has for continuing down the road with his father. He does not see there is much of a point to life if he is not helping other people. The boy wants to be sure he and his father help people and continue to carry the fire. The boy is the man’s strength and therefore courage, but the man does not know how the boy worries about him how the boy’s will to live depends so much on his
The author clearly shows how his childhood effected his adulthood, making in a living example of what he is writing about allowing the audience to more easily trust what he is writing about. Instead of using factually evidence from other dysfunctional family incidences, the author decides to make it more personal, by using his own life and comparing family ideas of the past to the present.
Everything around this point, the narrator is now just reminiscing on the picture. It is becoming more obvious that the father did have an effect on the narrator now that he’s grown up. The very last two lines of the stanza, which is “She does not know/ I will turn out bad,” is the best evidence to really jump to the theme. There is already an immediate foreshadow from the narrator that everything that happened led up to the very moment he’s looking back at the picture. The end result may be a terrible ending, or it could even be an experience that further toughened the narrator, but we can tell for sure that the father did have an effect on whatever happens to the narrator at the end. This whole stanza is able to capture the whole theme that was stated.
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate on the mind on the present moment. In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, a man and his son, who remain unnamed throughout the novel, are on a journey heading south after an unnamed catastrophe has struck the world. The conditions they face are unforgiving: rotting corpses, fires, abandoned towns and houses. The man and his son are among the few living creatures remaining on Earth who have not been driven to murder, rape, and cannibalism. Unfortunately, the father’s health worsens as they travel, and by the time they reach the ocean, he passes away. The boy remains by his side for days until the boy meets a kind family who invites him to join them. The boy must say goodbye to his father,
In turn, The Road generates many themes throughout the book, but the most prominent is the unbreakable bond between a father and ...
“It’s the oldest story in the world. One day you’re 17 and planning for someday. And then quietly and without you ever really noticing, someday is today. And then someday is yesterday. And this is your life.” - One Tree Hill
Tom is good natured and deals with what life throws at him, during the long trip towards work the family has realized the can count on Tom to help protect them. His past isn't going to define his future or change the way he feels about his family. As they arrive to California they get the devastating news that work is sparse and many people are dying of starvation, including Grampa who dies of a stroke. When the major change of losing a family member Tom realizes that life can be gone faster than you think and you see him changing into a more considerate person and a more sentimental person towards others. After they have buried Grampa, Tom comes across a “one eyed mechanic” who he helps fix his touring car. An act that he would probably never do in his past. Steinbeck shows Toms development into a more considerate person as the book
The narrator has a knack for bringing up traumatic times in his life, but passing it off in an indifferent tone. He believes that
There comes a point in everyone’s life when they are pressurized by society’s demands. One is given the option to either conform or challenge these social norms in order to suit one’s life.
The structure and language used is essential in depicting the effect that the need for survival has had upon both The Man and The Boy in The Road. The novel begins in media res, meaning in the middle of things. Because the plot isn’t typically panned out, the reader is left feeling similar to the characters: weary, wondering where the end is, and what is going to happen. McCarthy ensures the language is minimalistic throughout, illustrating the bleak nature of the post-apocalyptic setting and showing the detachment that the characters have from any sort of civilisation. Vivid imagery is important in The Road, to construct a portrait in the reader's mind that is filled with hopelessness, convincing us to accept that daily survival is the only practical option. He employs effective use of indirect discourse marker, so we feel as if we are in the man’s thought. The reader is provided with such intense descriptions of the bleak landscape to offer a feeling of truly seeing the need for survival both The Man and The Boy have. The reader feels no sense of closu...
With the son’s fear amongst the possibility of death being near McCarthy focuses deeply in the father’s frustration as well. “If only my heart were stone” are words McCarthy uses this as a way illustrate the emotional worries the characters had. ( McCarthy pg.11). Overall, the journey of isolation affected the boy just as the man both outward and innerly. The boys’ journey through the road made him weak and without a chance of any hope. McCarthy states, “Ever is a long time. But the boy knew what he knew. That ever is no time at all” (McCarthy pg. 28). The years of journey had got the best of both, where they no longer had much expectation for
Teenagers often find themselves going through the motions of doing what they are told when they are told to do it. In conforming to societies norms teenagers begin to feel as if they blend in and nothing is really special about them. John Updike was able to write a coming of age story in which his main character Sammy gets shoved into adulthood rather quickly over spontaneous decision. Through Sammy’s thoughts, intense observations, and his actions we are able to see his deep depravity and his longing to stand out from the crowd.
At first the relationship between a father and his son can be perceived as a simple companionship. However, this bond can potentially evolve into more of a dynamic fitting relationship. In The Road The Man and his son have to depend on one another because they each hold a piece of each other. The Man holds his sons sense of adulthood while the son posses his father’s innocence. This reliance between the father and son create a relationship where they need each other in order to stay alive. “The boy was all that stood between him and death.” (McCarthy 29) It is evident that without a reason to live, in this case his son, The Man has no motivation to continue living his life. It essentially proves how the boy needs his father to love and protect him, while the father needs the boy to fuel ...
...d in the narration. This is ultimately left to the sub-text, of what is left unsaid. It is quite clear where the author stands on the issues the short story raises, and through the naïveté in the children's perspective presented in the narrator's recollections, an intense and vivid resemblance to reality in this very retrospection, and the narrative sequencing that remorselessly directs the story towards the concluding tragedy - a powerful and scathing, if not sober, social critique on the nature of tradition, adhering to correct social behaviour and resistance to change is shaped and conveyed.