Compare And Contrast The First Day By Tobias Wolff

In both “The Night in Question” by Tobias Wolff and “The First Day” by Edward Jones, the authors describe characters whose lives have been transformed by the love of a close family member. However, Wolff suggests that this deep love manifests itself in a brother’s physical protection from an abusive parent, while Jones implies that it reveals itself through educational security ensured for the child by an illiterate mother’s persistence in her daughter’s school enrollment. Wolff establishes these instances of protection from abuse through flashbacks triggered by the retelling of a sermon. Jones approaches the story chronologically to prove the determination of the mother despite rejection. These two stories, both manipulate characterization

The excerpt states that she “...did oppose the father. In defiance of his orders, she brought food to Frank’s room when he was banished, stood up for him and told him he was right to stand up for himself” (Wolff 638). Through her rebellious actions, she acted in the best interest of her younger brother. Her love and support are represented by the risks she took to keep her brother safe growing up. In one passage from the short story, Francis’ father “flung her aside” after attempting to stop him from hurting Frank, she then “jumped on her father’s back and the three of them crashed around the room” and after it all lay “flat on the floor with a split lip and a ringing sound in her ears…” (Wolff 639). The physical pain she endured for her brother furthers the reader’s perception of the risks she took in order to protect her sibling. Descriptions of the physical effects she endured, increase sympathy in the reader through Her characterization of strength and ferocity is not only present in her protective actions, but also in her thought processes. Through her eyes “no one should be alone in this world. Everyone should have someone who kept faith, no matter what, all the way” (Wolff

Her strength and humility allowed her to overcome the difficulties associated between registering her daughter for school and being illiterate. After asking another for help multiple times at registration she finally, exasperatedly, explains “I can’t read it. I don’t know how to read or write, and I’m askin you to help me” (Jones 351). Following this, she looks at her daughter and then looks away. This embarrassed look is new to the daughter who is unaccustomed to her mother’s shame. For the reader, sympathy is heightened as a sense of compassionate pity towards the mother is formed. While she had for so long maintained her dignity in front of her daughter, she realized at that point that whether at that moment or years later her daughter would learn to be ashamed of her. The steps taken by the mother to enroll her daughter, further the mother’s strong character and the ways in which her desire to ensure an education for her daughter surpasses her