...Father-Son Relationship in The Odyssey The Odyssey introduces the theme of father-son relationships to exemplify how influential fathers were at the time. Fathers act as role models to their sons and can determine their actions even if there is a physical and psychological space and difference between them, like Odysseus and Telemachus. The reader is able to gain greater insight into the nature of ancient Greek society by analysing these father-son relationships for their complexities and circumstances of their familial ties. With each father-son relationship shown, Homer offers a unique perspective about the roles that were available to both father and son. Book 1-4 Throughout the Telemachia, we learn that Telemachus has been forced to grow up without the influence of his father and has been directly affected by Odysseus’ absence. When he confides in Athena under the guise of Mentor, he proclaims that he does not have solid proof that he is in fact Odysseus’s son and doubts that he is still alive. However, the dialogue between both Athena and Telemachus initiates Telemachus’ spiritual development. So, when the pre-economy of Odysseus and Telemachus re-uniting is fulfilled – Telemachus will be in the position to assist his father in killing the suitors and to restore the natural order in the Ithacan society. Telemachus first asserts his male privilege by ordering Penelope from the public rooms of the palace, indicating to the suitors of his intention to assert his claim...
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...that Elie has with his father, Schlomo, during the Holocaust. Having each other during the Holocaust, they can protect each other mentally, physically and emotionally. Father-son relationships are a strong bond, and experiencing such painful situations together can strengthen the connection. Elie and his father’s relationship changes immensely, as we see the difference in their relationship from before the camp, in the camp and when Schlomo grew weak. Schlomo raised Elie, and shaped who he was as a Jewish man, with integrity and respect. Schlomo was a positive man, who always gave people reason and hope. Their life before the camp was normal; and the family was loving and supportive to one another. However, Elie believed that his father cared more about the townspeople than his own family. “…Was more involved with the welfare of others than with his own kin” (Wiesel 27). Although Schlomo was a strong father figure, he was a very busy man, and the people in the town of Sighet needed him as well. Disagreements between the Elie and Schlomo lead to an early clash of power. When Schlomo denied Elie’s request to learn and be more...
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...Tyler McCurdy ENGL 2610/ Spring 2015 3 February 2015 The Relationship between Father and Son What is a father? A father is a strong male role model. He is someone that teaches his son how to sort the right from the wrong. He is someone that teaches his son how to recognize the mistakes that he may make, and how to correct them. He is someone who teaches his son about the moral decisions of life. He is someone that his son will look up to; want approval from; and wants to mirror his every move. Now that we know what a father is; what exactly is a son? A son is not just the offspring of his father, but he can be the spitting image of him. He is someone that is loyal to his father. He is someone that honors his father’s opinions and will want to seek his approval. A son is someone that once the father has left, he will take over and fill the position that his father has left for him. So it is important that the son has someone strong to look up to since his has such big shoes to fill. In the plays Phaedra and Tartuffe, they show the relationships between a father and his son. They reveal a struggle of loyalty, honor, and the ability to keep a “perfect” relationship. This essay will compare and contrast the two plays and the relationships between a father and his son. In this paragraph, we will be comparing and contrasting the fathers of the two plays. Throughout Phaedra and Tartuffe, the fathers in the play massive roles in their families lives. In Phaedra, Theseus was all...
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...Elie and his father go through major relationship changes throughout the book and it is interesting to watch the evolution of a father-son relationship like this. Elie and his father live in a town called, Sighet, they live in a Jewish community and are jews themselves. They have a person in the community named, Moshe the Beadle, he is taken away for a bit and when he returns he tells a story of how he and other people were taken out to a ditch and everyone was shot and killed, he escaped. Nobody believes such a thing is possible, until the Hungary police and nazis come in and put them in ghettos, small walled off communities. Then they are sent to the camp. The first time Elie and his father’s relationship is shown, they are distant. His father cares more about the community than his own family. Elie and his father don’t really talk much at all and have no sign of any good relationship there. Elie said, “My father was occupied with his business and the doings of the community” (Wiesel 5). His father has all his time occupied by everything but his family. Elie at this point is devoted to his religion and constantly is studying on it and learning more through a book called the “Cabbala”. It is a higher learning of their religion. Elie and his father’s relationship is getting better, but only due to them being forced to be together in the...
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...Sierra Seibold Miss Orians English 9 8 February 2016 Like Father Like Son Nishan Panwar said, “Son needs his father at every situation he face in present and father needs his son at every situation he face for his son in past.” The quote shows that fathers need and will need help from their sons, the same way sons need help of their fathers. Fathers, like Laertes and Poseidon helped their sons, just like Telemachus helped his father, Odysseus. Father son relationships in the Odyssey are used for helping each other. Telemachus helped his father take his palace back and ridded of suitors. Homer states, “Telemachus, true son of Odysseus belted his sword on, clapped hand to his spear and with a clink and glitter of keen bronze stood by his...
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...In Eliezer Wiesel’s Night, he focuses on father and son relationships. In the beginning Elie and his father did not have a very strong relationship. “my father was a cultured man, rather unsentimental. He rarely displayed his feelings, not even within his family, and was more involved with the welfare of others than his own kin”, Elie says. His father was not a man of emotion and treated Elie as if he was a spoiled rotten kid. Wiesel details father-son relationships to show how natural, loving bonds deteriorate when individuals are faced with intolerable situations. For example, a prisoner murders his father for a taste of bread, demonstrating the breakdown of humanity. The prisoner then ends up getting jumped and is also killed. Another...
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...Father Son Relationships in Night A relationship can be defined as the mutual dealings, connections, or feelings that exist between people. Across Europe during the Holocaust, families were torn apart. At the arrival of a concentration camp, families were separated, never to be reunited again. The few families that remained had to watch one another suffer and eventually die from the harsh conditions. Those that had lost their families lost their strength and will to live. Eventually, they let the crematories claim their lives. As for Elie Wiesel, he vows to never lose his father and will do anything to remain with him. Wiesel’s memoir Night depicts the true hardships of having a family during the Holocaust. The events portrayed in Night show that the atrocities bring Wiesel and his father closer giving Wiesel a reason to live but also places Wiesel at a disadvantage. In the beginning, Wiesel and his father have a brittle relationship. Their relationship appears weak and lacks a certain connection. Wiesel states, “My father was a cultured, rather unsentimental man” (2). The absence of emotions and personal interactions between them weakens their relationship. Wiesel also claims, “He was more concerned with others than...
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...In Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, the author gives many examples of father and son relationships that help prepare a boy to understand right from wrong. The emotional bond be-tween a father and son demonstrate the necessity of a fatherly figure. The relationships between Baba and Amir, Hassan and Sohrab, and Amir and Sohrab in The Kite Runner are examples of the emotional bonds that demonstrate the need for a father. To begin, Amir and Baba, the protagonist and his father, are a prime example of the fa-therly figure needed in one’s life. Baba and Amir are nowhere close to the expression “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” Amir is nothing like his father, and this causes Baba to not be the great fatherly figure that Amir needs because he does not understand why Amir is so different from him. Baba has little emotional attachment to his son because of their differences, and he tells Rahim Khan, his friend and business partner, “If I hadn’t seen the doctor pull him out of my wife with my own eyes, I’d never believe he’s my son.” Despite...
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...The relationship between a father and son is one of the most important things a child can have. A good relationship with one’s father results in a more stable life and mindset. Both My Papa’s Waltz by Theodore Roethke and Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden display father and son relationships. These poems have complications in the relationship between the two, but My Papa’s Waltz is a more negative complication. Those Winter Sundays shows more of a misunderstanding from the son’s point of view. Negative complications help emphasise how important a healthy relationship between a father and son is. My Papa’s Waltz shows a conflicting relationship between father and son. The boy seems to love his father. This is evidenced by the boy...
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...Father & Son Father and son love is complicated. Nobody said being a good father was easy. No matter what age your child is or how many children you have, you have to know that a father's work is never done. To be a good father, you have to be present, be a good disciplinarian and role model, and be sympathetic to your children's needs without being a pushover. I will explain the similarities on how the two fathers of the stories were good role models. The bond between a parent and a child is one of the strongest things on this earth. The relationships between father and son in the poems "The Gift" by Li-Young Lee, and the story “Digging“ By Seamus Heaney. In all two genres father and son are the most prominent characters. All have the absence or near absence of mother figures. They also all show how important a father is to his son. Show the importance of father-son relationships through the fathers' involvement in their sons' lives, the fathers teaching their sons life skills, and the fathers' immense love for their sons. Love with admiration, care, demurred, unrestricted, warm, role model and respect. The similarities between the stories “Digging“ By Seamus Heaney, and “The Gift” by Li-young Lee is that the kids have role model fathers. “Digging” describes how a boy looks up to his father and the son observes and writes it down as he is proud of him. in the poem it says “When the spade sinks into gravelly ground. My father digging, I look down”(3-4). It states that the...
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...shows the detached relationship the father and son have. The third person point of view of the passage interprets the true feelings of the son and the father’s relationship upon the breaking of the tradition. The third person point of view makes it clear to show that the father is actually upset that the son had broken a tradition of nine years, while the son didn’t think twice about it. The passage begins with the mixed feelings of the son. The son sat in front of the fire and looked across at his father and wondered how he was going to tell him that he wanted to fish with Bill Harper this camping trip, rather than going with his father,...
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...In Dalton Trumbo’s excerpt from his novel Johnny Got His Gun, Trumbo uses the selection of detail, and point of view to characterize the father and son’s relationship. This valued, thoughtful, and strong relationship is developed and revealed gradually throughout the excerpt. Trumbo introduces the backstory of the father-son trip by revealing the tradition of the trip. “They had been coming… was seven,” and “...for the first time in all their trips…” set a precedent of the tradition of the trip, and the quality bonding that occurs during this occasion. Trumbo choosing to include the importance of the father-son bond on the trip, and the quality time that is spent sets the tone that this is a valued relationship, one that while strong, holds...
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...his mother and stepdad, who he is not amused about. We hear that when he compares his father to his stepdad named Jim. The boy is very fascinated by his father and looks up to him, even though the father hasn’t been a part of his for 4 month. In the text the reader almost only experiences the story from the boy’s view. We hear about the feelings of the boy; what he thinks, and how he experiences things. We get to know the boy better by these observations, for example when the boy “is intent. Watching Dad. Watching what dad is”. It seems like the boy has a hard time figuring out what “dad” is, and it feels like he has an ambivalent relationship to his real father and his stepdad. All though there is a physical distance between father and son, the boy have a hard time letting go of his father. The boy tries to connect with his father even though he is very distracted and never shows an interest in the conversations they have. The boy tries to build a stronger relationship to his father and every time he feels ignored or left behind makes excuses for his father. The boy supresses his own feelings, because it is too hard for him to feel the distance his father has taken to him and acknowledging their lost relationship. This also shows how much the separation has affected the boy. The father knows that it is already too late to make up for his loss. He has already given up their relationship and is determent that it is too late to fight for it. He is having a hard time showing...
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...shouldering the guilt of telling his father that he would prefer to fish with a friend rather than with his father. Although the young man and his father clearly maintain a close relationship, as shown through the author’s continuous use of “they” in the initial paragraph and the son’s struggle with guilt in the last few paragraphs, the son is beginning to move on with his life and thus distance himself from his father, as shown through the limited perspective of the son in the later half of the excerpt and the carefully selected details surrounding the interactions between father and son. With the author’s continuous...
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...Realistic & Complicated ''Daddy Dozens'' by Jamila Woods is about a father who's a doctor and doesn't spend time with his family because he's always working. "Step Father" by Emanuel Xavier is about a father and son who don't have a good relationship. Their relationship has a lot of pain and sadness. The father was mentally and physically abusive towards his son. The son is gay and wants his father to love and accept him for who he is. The father gets old and starts forgetting his memory. The son in the end forgives for his father for everything him put him through and provides love and care for his father. Even though these poems seem very different they very much a like....
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