Sunday in the Park

1158 Words5 Pages
In the short story “Sunday in the Park” by Bel Kaufmann the reader is presented with the meeting between two families with very different places in society. The differences in each of the two families’ backgrounds are expressed in their lack of understanding for each other even when it comes to small matters like throwing sand at each other. The text also shows how people from two different places in society handle conflicts. And how something that seems totally right and acceptable to one person can seem unfriendly and uncivilized to another. The short story is mainly about the differences between people who have different social status. The differences in any point – education, raising, mind, thoughts and acts. It comes to show in different levels – between Joe’s father and Morton and between Larry and Joe. Morton is Larry’s father. He is a very decent and well-educated man – that type of man who would rather negotiate and talk about problems than fight and argue. He is reading the paper in the park in a Sunday afternoon with his wife by his side. At first he does not take part in the discussion between his wife and Joe’s father. First when his wife looks at him and expects him to say something, he pulls himself together and tries to talk to the man. “She felt a sudden weakness in her knees as she glanced at Morton. He had become aware of what was happening.”, page 98, lines 12-13. From how Morton acts, it is possible to claim the he is a man who has always been helped through life with love and care. He has never been forced into using power or violence and his parents have taken good care of him. And because they have helped him through life, he has gotten a good education and has never had to fight for himself to survive. He is the exact opposite of Joe’s father. Joe’s father reads comics on a bench in the park in a Sunday afternoon – this is the first sign
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