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.
Johnny works as a silversmith with the Laphams, training for the day where he will take up the shop. People think of Johnny as a servant, but he acts like a tyrant, bossing around not only the other boys in the house, but Mr. Lapham’s own granddaughters. Johnny’s bad treatment of others leads to annoyance, and this annoyance leads to a damaging accident that wrecks Johnny’s future as a silversmith. The outcome of this accident is a crippled hand. With a crippled hand, Johnny cannot find sufficient work and he allows himself to feel sorrowful.
The author suffered from many consequences as he was getting older. First, the lost of his father, which had a big impact on him because of the lack of parental support. Then, due to the consequences of just having one parent at home, Wes began having trouble with the school which led him to get involved in risky incidents, like trouble with the law and school. Although, the author was surrounded by many negative factors that caused him to not care about him and his family. His mother Joy, wanted to make a change in him because she knew that Wes was not
As he grew older, Pickton frequently skipped school to stay home on the farm. Robert’s father was not involved in raising the children; he was known to be emotionally abusive towards Robert, causing Robert to feel neglected. His mother, Louise, might have done the best she knew how to, but she was apparently eccentric and tough on her children. It is said that Robert was very close to his mother. Louise was workaholic who ran the family meat business, she supervised the kids and expected them to put in long hours slopping pigs and looking after other animals, even on school days.
Catherine would “forget” to feed him breakfast, and at dinner time he was to stand in the garage or the basement while the family ate. David began stealing food from kids at school just to survive. That didn’t last long, as the school started to catch on to the missing lunches, which led to phone calls from the principal home to Catherine. That led to less food at home for David, as well as many more beatings. David no longer existed in his family, and he was now referred to as “The Boy”.
He represents the typical attention starved youngest child in a family. In one of the scenes, he steals spoonfuls of sugar from the sugar bowl until told not to by other members in the families kitchen. As immature as they come, he is looked down upon by his older brothers and is often criticized
School has become his only escape from his living nightmare and horrid home environment. His mother begins to deny him food, forcing David to steal the other children’s lunches at school. David is often caught doing so, thus making his mother even more infuriated; as well as setting David up for relentless bullying from his classmates. By the first grade, David had become an outsider to his own family. He was no longer allowed to eat meals alongside his family, play with his brothers, watch television, leave the house, or look at or speak to anyone.
People would creep in at night on Eli’s father and hit him to be able to steal the little food he had. I will never forget the image of the sick father getting beat for his food because that was his food and nobody had the right to steal it. He was sick and the little food he had he needed. I felt pain when I read of this part in the book. The pain the father must have been in trying to fight for his food and then getting it taken from him and having to feel hunger and sick.
She acts as a mother to Jem and Scout. The passage that occurs when Walter Cunningham is having dinner with the Finches really shows the motherly instinct in Calpurnia. “’But he’s gone and drowned his dinner in syrup,’ I protested, ‘He’s poured it all over – It was then that Calpurnia requested my presence in the kitchen. She was furious…’There’s some folks who don’t eat like us,’ she said, ‘but you ain’t called on to contradict ‘em at the table when they don’t. That boy’s you comp’ny and if he wants to eat the table cloth you let him, you hear?’” (32).
Azhar’s life is very different from other boys’, because he has a Pakistani father and a British mother. He got bullied daily in school by a boy named Little Billy. His mother tried to teach him to be polite and gets a bit irritated when he forgets. ‘’Say please,’’ whispered his mother, making a sign of exasperation’’ On their way from their shopping trip, they met Little Billy and his father, Big Billy on the bus. As soon as the Billy’s sat down, they started to make fun of Azhar.