What Is The Theme Of The Boat By Alistair Macleod

Why do people become doctors if they do not want to help people? One of the reasons might be money, but more often than not, the pressure from their parents or relatives leads them down that road. Similarly, in “The Boat” by Alistair MacLeod, the unnamed narrator realizes that to appease his mother, he needs to continue the family tradition, even if that means sacrificing his education, so he goes out to sea with his father. Ultimately, he pursues his passions, but only after a certain tipping point could he move past his guilt toward his mother. Therefore, when faced with the daunting task of following family tradition, individuals will give up their dreams to satisfy the desire of their parents and ancestors until a time comes when they can

An important piece of context that helps to understand this story better is that the narrator's family has been fishing the seas for generations, so it is normal for them to receive pride in their work at sea. It is a family tradition that has yet to be broken before this time. From this, we can understand why the narrator’s mother is so irate at the sight of her daughters and son pursuing books and education over life at sea. It is a waste of time, and she sees it as them throwing away their honour. When the narrator's sisters start slowly becoming engrossed in the books their father kept, their mother grows frustrated that none of her daughters are “interested in any of the right things” (228). To his mother's dismay, the narrator's father asks him to continue his education, but after the school year ends, he sets foot on the boat to help his father for the first time. Moreover, this is when he comes to an important realization about how his father was “not intended” for life as a fisherman, neither “physically [n]or mentally”

When the school year starts again, the narrator leaves his studies and goes to sea with his father. There he realizes that his father had never wanted to become a fisherman and, after a late-night conversation, that his father wanted to go to university. Initially, he dismisses this as a father's pipe dream, but over time he pieces together reasons that help solidify that information as fact. After this, the narrator decides to stay with the boat because only then would he fulfill his mother's dreams and look after his father. He might have also done so to ease his sadness toward his father, who had to give up his dreams for the sake of marriage, children and tradition. It is not easy for an individual to watch their parents age, but it is even more challenging to see them age due to a job they never wanted to work. Furthermore, the narrator finds a great love for his father in his heart because it is “much braver to spend a life doing what you really do not want to do rather than selfishly following forever your own dreams” (233). Due to these realizations, the narrator decides to continue the family tradition to ease his mother's heart and spend time with his father to pay him back for all the sacrifices he had made for their