Father's Law Literary Analysis Essay

Son of Brentwood Park
The drama A Father’s Law, by Richard Wright, is about a newly promoted chief of police named Ruddy and his relationship with his son Tommy. Ruddy has provided food, shelter, and a very good education for Tommy however, he seems to know very little, if anything at all, of his son. Nevertheless, Tommy and Ruddy are at odds throughout the book “he had never been able to erect the kind of healthy father-and-son relationship he had always dreamed of and wanted.” (6), and Tommy seems to question Ruddy’s line of duty in Brentwood Park as well. However, the two do bond once Tommy reveals the truth of him and his ex-fiancé .
Only a few pages into the book and one will know that the relationship between Ruddy and Tommy is different from the generic father-son love relationship. Ruddy is disappointed that even though he has always done what Tommy wanted, “I’ve given ‘im every damned thing he ever asked for.” (7) Tommy is still not open with him “But why doesn’t he tell me everything?” (7). In fact, Ruddy goes a bit to the extreme and “regard his son somewhat in the same light that he held the criminals he questioned” (7), and at this age many teenagers keep to themselves and usually are distant from their parents because they are either to controlling or are smothering them, however, neither of these seem to be the case here. Ruddy tries to avoid these thoughts by claiming his son has never done anything wrong, but the very assurance that Tommy has done nothing wrong makes him think he has “Tommy hasn’t… done anything wrong.” (7).
As the story proceeds, Ruddy is promoted and assigned to Brentwood Park and learns that Tommy has studied Brentwood and knows more about this area then Ruddy does of his son. Therefore, Ruddy uses Brentwood in an attempt to bond with his son “At once the image of his Tommy flashed into his mind. Yes, Tommy would and could help him here.” (64) which also helps his job because of how deep Tommy is into the sociology of the...