For 14-year old Walter, his great uncles’ farm in rural Texas is the last place on earth he wants to spend the summer. Dumped off by his mother, Mae, in the middle of nowhere with two crazy old men and the promise that she’ll come back for him, Walter doesn’t know what to believe in. Eccentric and gruff, Hub and Garth McCaan are rumored to have been bank robbers, mafia hit men and/or war criminals in their younger days. The truth is elusive, although they do seem to have an endless supply of cash. But Walter begins to see a new side to his great uncles when he stumbles on an old photograph of a beautiful woman hidden away in a trunk and asks Garth who she is.
This is discovered when the patriarch, Julian Hayden, says to his son Wesley “Ever since the war…Ever since Frank came home in a uniform and you stayed home, you’ve been jealous” (118). This favoritism shows what little respect Julian holds for his younger son that stems from Franks dominance between the Hayden siblings. Wes is constantly put down because of his brother’s achievements; these situations can either make or break Wesley. In all families, there is a member who thrives on ‘power trips’, and in this specific situation, it was Julian, “He wanted, he needed, power…he was a dominating man who drew sustenance and strength from controlling others” (20). Julian acquires his power through putting others down, especially Wes; this causes Wesley to have a lot of animosity towards his father.
Jo Gal English 0960 February 26, 2012 "A Basic Analysis of Bret Lott's Essay "Brothers" The old saying that "A picture is worth a thousand words" rings true as you read Bret Lott's essay "Brothers," which is an excerpt from Fathers, Sons, and Brothers: The Men in my Family (1997). In this essay, Lott analyzes the complex relationships between the male members of his family. Implying that younger siblings must endure the pinches and kicks of their childhood in order to become Adults. However, we sometimes don't know who our siblings are once we reach adulthood. As with most things, overtime our memories sometimes faded just like Lott's family movie from the early 60s.
For Matt and Ruth, this couple have to cope with the loss of their youngest son Frank, who was gunned down in cold blood by Richard Strout, the husband of Frank’s girlfriend Mary Ann. For Matt and Ruth, they suffered on multiple levels. They had to cope and heal from the loss of their beloved son, who had a beautiful future ahead of him, but also experience other injustices such as seeing Richard Strout walking around town, flaunting his freedom, while their son was dead. Matt, in a conversation with his close friend Willis Trottier, remarked, “Every day since he got out. (he was asked how often he thought about Strout since the murder) I didn’t think about bail.
Aibileen gives her the signed book from the community before Skeeter leaves and she is very touched by this gesture. Because of Minny’s story about Hilly, Hilly’s husband fires Leroy and when he finds out that it’s because of Minny he is very pissed at her. She eventually can’t stand him any longer and decides to that the kids and leave him. Hilly visits Elizabeth and tells her that she should fire Aibileen. Even though she doesn’t really want to, she complies and does what Hilly tells her.
In Montana 1948, Wesley Hayden has to make one of the toughest decisions of his life, do the right thing and arrest his brother, or let his brother off because they are family. In Wesley’s eyes, he felt that it would be better to stand up for justice instead of back up his family. As a result of standing up for justice, Wes paid a hard price. He was never his father’s favorite son, but when Wes arrests Frank (the perfect son), it doesn’t sit too well with Grandpa Hayden. Julian Hayden practically eliminates Wes from his family.
And the only thing that kept him going was his dad but the chance of getting separated from his dad was devastating for him. He was constantly hit with life and death situations throughout the whole year he spent going from camp to camp. Elie and his father had to lie about their age to even stay alive. “Here, Kid, how old are you?” “Eighteen” This helps keep him from being burned in the crematory. He was scared, felt lonely and wanted to do anything to stay alive.
This was a story of two brothers and the differences in their lives and how their differences separated them. In her novel ‘Rumble Fish’ (1975) Hinton also tells the story of gang wars and how a man who grew up during this time loses everything significant to him due to efforts of becoming something he is not. In her book ‘Tex’ (1979) a story of two brothers living in a crazy family trying to survive through all of it, grabbed the avid attention of the readers. ‘Taming the Star Runner’ came out in
“Chris's smoldering anger, it turns out was fueled by a discovery he'd made two summers earlier, during his cross-country wanderings... Chris pieced together the facts of his father's previous marriage and subsequent divorce-facts to which he hadn't been privy.” (p. 121) This is not good mainly for Chris and his dad's relationship and also his mom and him. He was enraged at the fact that he was never told and that his dad would lie to him or be deceitful and not tell him about his first family and
From Amir's narrative view we see a boy who strives to be something his father can be proud of and a father who is disappointed in his son. Hosseini has made Baba and Amir's relationship rather broken in the beginning of the story; Baba even saying, "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." After the Russians invade and the pair flees to America their relationship changes, from being rifted it becomes two people trying their best to make up for what they didn't have before. They work together at the flea market and Baba lets Amir choose his uni courses. Baba's death is a loss, not only to Amir, "Noting the two inches of empty space between the collar button and Baba’s neck.