Comparison of Two Short Stories by Tobias Wolff Essay

From the weekend fishing trips to complete hatred and denial, father-son relationships can be characterized by many good and bad experiences. After reading the two short stories Powder by Tobias Wolff and If the River was Whiskey by T. C. Boyle, which some(prenominal) feature father-son relationships that are hardened under a large amount of stress. There are many similarities and differences between these two relationships that are not apparent upon just a perfunctory glance. A father can be completely inconsiderate of his sons needs or try his best to meet them and keep mum create turmoil in spite of appearance the relationship.After reading Wolffs short point Powder, one can conclude that the father tries quite hard to make his son happy. In this story the father involves the son to places the mother would not approve of in order to try and win his affection. Wolff states, Hed had to fight for the privilege of my company, because my mother was stable angry with him for sne aking me into a nightclub during his last visit, to see Thelonious Monk (33). Taking his son to these places is his way of forming a father-son connection.Not only does he take his son skiing, he fights his wife for the privilege, and when she disagrees he does it without her knowledge. small-arm this strengthens the father-son relation, the husband-wife relation is weakened. In this case the father is trying to a greater extent to be the best friend quite of a role model, and in doing so creates conflicts with his wife. This directly affects the sons well being because what peasant 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 clash in their relationship. Wolff writes, I always thought ahead. I was a boy who kept his clothes on numbered hangers to insure proper rotation. I bothered my teachers for homework assignments far ahead of their due dates so I coul d draw up schedules (36). Obviously, his father did not plan or think ahead, or he would obligate planned on leaving the ski social club early in case they ran into trouble. When they got down the road, the trooper tells them that the road is blocked 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 feel inadequate, and he did not respond to it. His fathers recklessness directly affects their relationship. The boy is more like a man, and the father is more like a boy, showing the adult in a relationship is not always who it seems, but that tidy sum can learn about themselves by their relationships with others. The son was very uneasy and nervous when his father started driving down the snow c all overed road one time the trooper left his post.Wolff shows this when he writes to keep my detainment from shaking I clamped them between my knees (35). The connection 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. All persuasion, no coercion, such subtlety at the wheel, such discerning 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 never seen before.In Boyles short story, If the River was Whiskey the same rocky father-son relationship that slowly takes a turn for the better is displayed. The father in Boyles story is lots worse than the one in Wolffs story in that he is an alcoholic that did not spend 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 postulate 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 do ne one anathemise 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 reservation him dis attached and hateful toward his father. When the son came home from school he would find his father sitting 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 after school and seeing ones father in this condition would be very traumatic.It shows him that his father doesnt care about his job and would instead be at home whoop it uping 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 Tiller and spend some quality time with him. Boyle explains Tillers excitement by saying It was too much for him all at oncethe sun, the breeze that was s o sweet, the novelty of his father rowing, pale arms and a cigarette clenched between his teeth, the boat rocking, and the birds verbalisehe closed his eyes 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 hooked a fish on his line, it was perhaps the climax of their relationship. Boyle writes, Tiller apothegm something in his eyes he hardly recognized anymore, a connection, a charge, as if the fish were sending a current up the line, through the pole, and into his hands and body and brain (234).That passage shows that Tiller actually felt 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 fish 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 persecute 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 there 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 interrupted by a one of kind father-son connection.