The Father Short Story

Life is a long road with various turns and the greatest difficulty is the moment in which people stand at a crossroads. Because we do not know what is waiting for us at the end of the road, it is difficult to decide. It can be a delighted ending, rocky way or a dead-end depend on our choices. Therefore, our choices can have a specific effect on personal life. We all agree that the choices of the parents are extremely significant thus its influence on their children. In the short story "The Father" by Hugh Garner, John Purcell has his own choices in his relationship with his son and in his life. The father in the story is a soldier who doesn 't pay much attention to his family, especially, his son. Then, he realizes he has been an unfit father

The author presents him as a curt, impatient, egocentric as well as a desperate alcoholic father, which is definitely not a fatherly figure. In order to understand how his choices have completely impacted his father-and-son relationship, we first need to understand this eventually came to happen. Firstly, John did not spend enough time with Jonny and he had a lack of consideration along with paternity. For illustration, John always used the idea that Johnny was "only a twelve-year-old who wants to be left alone" (page 3) to excuse his misgiving. He showed his shortage of fatherhood through the flashback that John agreed to have Johnny held back a year in school, straightforwardly owing to his selfish want to leave the school, which is the genesis of their poor relationship. John was an only person building an invisible barrier between him and his boy. He chose to be irresponsible and distant from his son, which engendered "their distance one from the other was greater than ever"(page 3). Secondly, he prioritized alcohol, which could strongly control his life and made him become irresponsible. For instance, "on the evening of the banquet, he was a little late getting home, having stopped in for a few drinks with a customer"(page 3). Another evidence is the detail when John poured a drink right after his wife asked him to go to the banquet. This might foreshadow the fact that John needs liquor when he faces a

His first step towards following this alternative is by accepting the invitation to Johnny 's banquet, thus feeling that might be a way of overcoming the barrier that had sprung up between them. He wants to condense the distance between them, unfortunately, he lately perceives that he has a huge lack of knowledge about his son. There is the proof in the story that mentions "he didn 't even know what position his own son played or even the name of the team" (page 6) and "he seemed to know less about the boy than anyone" (page 7). Hence, it brings a disconnection in the father-son relationship, besides, it isolates him from the banquet, which is the root of his subsequent mistakes. Likewise, while he feels so lost at the banquet, he gives an egregious option of drinking alcohol. He is ill-mannered, such as "his earlier drinks, plus the heat of the hall, making him talk and laugh too loudly"(page 9). The more Johnny is ashamed of John, the more he wants to ignore his father. Once again, John makes a mistaken decision when he left the banquet to light a cigarette. Then, he continues binge-drinking with another irresponsible father, whom he calls "a lifesaver". John leaves his boy by himself at where other fathers show their consideration to their children. Because of his poor alternative, he has created more distance in their