Listening to this song by Harry Chapin reminded me of the funtionalists perspective of the “nuclear” family. “Social problems arise, for instance, when parent can’t or don’t provide their children with the necessary financial and emotional support.” (pg.249). Children look up to their parents as examples of social stability and caregivers, and when the fatherly figure is out of the ordinary, the child will know only that to continue onto his future family. “Little boy blue and the man on the moon,” refers to children’s stories, in this case the son being the little boy blue, anxiously awaiting his dad’s return. His father, however, is the man on the moon and although he’ll be back, he’ll leave again.
I’m Milo your son” (p.67). This shows that Milo still seeks his father’s attention and he is still in the hope of being accepted. He is a teenage boy, and in the period of his life where he is in the most need of a role model, someone whom he can rely on. This is evident where Milo states that he would like to love the man his mother had married to, which shows how much a father’s presence was empty in Milo’s life. He clipped pictures of is father from the magazines and rode the bus to look at his father’s sculptures when he was a child.
Tyrell changes from static to dynamic by the end of the story. He does the right thing when he tells his best friend Calvin that he can’t bring drugs into the party area. I can identify with the character when he gets tired of feeling like the parent to his younger brother Troy. Another character is Troy, Tyrell’s younger brother. Troy is seven years old in the first grade, and because his mother likes to receive his SSI checks she keeps him in the PEC program.
In the two short stories it seems as if the sons’ relationships with their father were quite different, but they also had their similarities because both of them cared for their son. In the story “Powder” the father took good care of his son for he continually tried to give his son what he thought was best. He fought for the privilege to see his son after he already snuck him into a jazz club to see Thelonious Monk (Wolff 1). He was a good dad, for as his son says “He wouldn’t give up. He promised, hand on heart, to take good care of me and have me home for dinner on Christmas Eve” (Wolff 1).
His parents are still in the stage where they know their son is autistic but they believe it might be a wrong diagnosis and their son is only going through a delay. But after speaking to professionals and Nelson’s teachers they have been confirmed that Nelson is autistic and he will received special education to accommodate to his needs. In addition, Nelson communicates through nonverbal communication which is primarily through hand gestures and noises. For example if he needs an object, he requests it by pointing at the object or grabbing the teachers hand and placing it on the desired object. Nelson plays with the toys and sometimes interacts with his classmates, but has a hard time making eye contact with people.
Adam has finally has his father and son moment with one of his children that he is grateful to express himself to his son Cal. By saying he trusts Cal he has gain even more love and forgiveness for not being with his children for many years. Plus, Adam is able to not be like his father but instead be the opposite with just one of his children. Cal – “He though sardonically of telling him about his mother, to see how he would handle I, but he withdrew the though quickly. He didn’t think Aron could handle it at all,” (Steinbeck 586).
Because his parents have died in a car accident, Ponyboy lives with his brothers Darry and Sodapop. Darry repeatedly accuses Ponyboy of lacking common sense, but Ponyboy is a reliable youth. Throughout the novel, Ponyboy struggles with class division, violence, innocence, and familial love. He matures over the course of the novel, eventually realising the importance of friendship and the feeling of respect. Though he is only fourteen years old, he understands the way his social group functions and the role each group member plays.
Assignment 3 English Composition II 22 June 2010 Response #1: “Powder” In “Powder,” Tobias Wolff discusses the relationship between a boy and his father, told through an event that happened as a child. The father is an outgoing type guy who enjoys life, vice the boy who is uncomfortable with most things and too dependent on planning to be happy. In the middle of a split up between his mother and father, he sets out on what becomes an adventure with his father. In an attempt to build a relationship with the boy, his father tends to break the rules and expose him to a more open culture. In every aspect of the story, his father seems to be a caring and loving father who only wants the best for his son.
He talks about when his brother was first born in the beginning of the story and how he was happy that he was getting someone to hang out with. Once he found out that his brother was undeveloped he says a lot of things that I think a healthy person should say, such as planning on smothering his brother with a pillow. I consider that the narrator did not sound like an average child, his personality might have been that way since the birth of his brother, but we do not get to read a lot about his life and feelings before his brother was born. I think the relationship between the narrator and his brother is very complex, and cannot be described easily. It was confusing to tell what he narrators true feelings were throughout the story, but I believed that he loved his brother.
His parents are happy and he longs for it himself. By George rekindling his relationship with Robin and not having “been happy for 10 years” until this, Sam sees that if he betters his relationships, he can also be happy. For the whole movie, George “was trying to get [Sam] to love [him]”, and he “pulled it off”. Sam no longer feels neglected and actually feels part of the family. There is no longer a reason to be angry.