Comparison of Two Short Stories by Tobias Wolff Essay

From the weekend fishing trips to complete wickedness and denial, capture- discussion relationships can be characterized by many good and bad experiences. later on reading the two short stories Powder by Tobias Wolff and If the River was Whiskey by T. C. Boyle, which two feature attain-son relationships that are placed under a braggy amount of stress. in that respect are many similarities and differences amidst these two relationships that are non apparent upon just a cursory glance. A acquire can be completely inconsiderate of his sons needs or soften his best to suffer them and still create turmoil within the relationship. aft(prenominal) reading Wolffs short grade Powder, one can close up that the beginner tries quite hard to make his son happy. In this story the begin takes the son to places the catch would not approve of in revision to label and win his affection. Wolff states, Hed had to fight for the privilege of my company, because my mother was still ang ry with him for sneaking me into a nightclub during his last visit, to checker Thelonious Monk (33). Taking his son to these places is his way of forming a father-son connection.Not provided does he take his son skiing, he fights his wife for the privilege, and when she disagrees he does it without her knowledge. era this strengthens the father-son relation, the husband-wife relation is weakened. In this case the father is trying more to be the best friend instead of a role model, and in doing so creates conflicts with his wife. This flat affects the sons well being because what child would be happy to see his parents fighting. In Wolffs story the father is displayed as being a risk-taker and borderline reckless.This is where the father and son seem to meeting in their relationship. Wolff writes, I invariably thought ahead. I was a son who kept his clothes on numbered hangers to insure proper rotation. I daunted my teachers for homework assignments far ahead of their due date s so I could father up schedules (36). Obviously, his father did not plan or think ahead, or he would have planned on leaving the ski commit early in case they ran into trouble. When they got voltaic pile the road, the trooper tells them that the road is out of use(p) and the son became annoyed and frustrated with his fathers carelessness.He says to his father we should have left before (35) This comment made his father opinion inadequate, and he did not respond to it. His fathers recklessness directly affects their relationship. The boy is more the likes of a man, and the father is more like a boy, showing the adult in a relationship is not always who it seems, but that people can learn somewhat themselves by their relationships with others. The son was very uneasy and nervous when his father started driving down the snow covered road once the trooper left his post.Wolff shows this when he writes to keep my hands from shaking I clamped them between my knees (35). The connecti on was restored between them when the child decided to stop moping and began to enjoy himself. The child says, My father in his forty-eighth year, rumpled, kind, bankrupt of honor, flushed with genuinety. He was a great driver. any persuasion, no coercion, such subtlety at the wheel, such tactful pedalwork. I actually trusted him (37). This was a big turning point in their relationship because the child now sees greatness in his father that he had neer seen before.In Boyles short story, If the River was Whiskey the same flint father-son relationship that slowly takes a turn for the better is displayed. The father in Boyles story is often fourth dimensions worse than the one in Wolffs story in that he is an alcoholic that did not extend much time with his son. While in Wolffs story spending time with his son made the father feel good, all the father in Boyles story needed was alcohol to feel good, giving no attention to his son. The wife attacks the father by saying, Weve been here two weeks and you havent done one damn thing with him, nothing, zero.You havent even been down to the lake. What kind of father are you? (231). Seeing his parents in such an argument affects the son by making him disconnected and odious toward his father. When the son came home from school he would find his father seated in the dark, hair in his face, bent low over the guitar. There was an open bottle of liquor on the coffee table and a clutter of beer bottles (231). Coming back to this dreary home life afterwards school and seeing ones father in this match would be very traumatic.It shows him that his father doesnt care about his hypothesize and would rather be at home drinking while reminiscing about his past. The relationship between them finally took a turn for the better when his father put down the bottle and decides to go fishing with grower and spend some quality time with him. Boyle explains Tillers excitement by saying It was too much for him all at oncethe su n, the snap that was so sweet, the novelty of his father rowing, pale arms and a stern clenched between his teeth, the boat rocking, and the birds whisperinghe closed his eye a minute, just to keep from going dizzy with the joy of it (233).At this point, one can see that Tillers feelings of hate toward his father are diminishing. His fathers attitude also seems to have changed because he is making a conscious effort to not drink and have a good time on the water. When his father finally pendent a fish on his line, it was perhaps the climax of their relationship. Boyle writes, Tiller axiom something in his eyes he hardly recognized anymore, a connection, a charge, as if the fish were sending a current up the line, by the pole, and into his hands and body and brain (234).That passage shows that Tiller actually mat him and his father finally connect. He describes it as hardly recognized because they had never really connected in this way before now. After his father pulled the fi sh up into the boat and Tiller realized it wasnt a pike, already the thing in his eyes was gone, already it was over (234). This is where Tiller gets the feeling that his father had let him down as he always had before. The connection was once again lost. In both T. C. Boyles and Tobias Wolffs stories the fathers actions create a direct reflection on their son. In T. C.Boyles story the father does things that damage his other relationships to try and improve the one with his son, and this is shown to have an equally bad result for the son as the one in Tobias Wolffs story. In both stories at that place is a critical element that seems to connect the father and son. In both Wolff and Boyles story the sight of ones father performing a certain action creates an exhilarating short lived connection. A father can be completely inconsiderate of his sons needs or try his best to meet them and still create turmoil within the relationship that is occasionally fitful by a one of kind father- son connection.