The False Moon - Shirley Golden

946 Words4 Pages
Any child needs love, parental guidance, and someone it can count on while growing up. But when a child’s needs aren’t met, it might go looking for steering points in the strangest places. In the short story, “The False Moon”, by Shirley Golden from 2011, the main character lacks stability at home and is forced into steering through life on his own. The first person narrator of “The False Moon” is also the main character, who tells the story of his life as a teenage boy living alone with a mother who works shifts and is almost never there, neither psychically nor emotionally. Matt, as the main character is called, describes himself as a lanky, skinny guy whom no one fears (l. 14) and who is not the type to start a fight (l. 26). He has trouble in school where the subjects seem too difficult and his classmates’ problems too trivial. He feels like an outsider, but covers it up by trying to convince himself that the others are losers (l. 22). As soon as he gets the chance, he skips school to seek out adventure in town. Hiding things from his mother, such as letters from school, seems almost too easy, seeing as she is never around and is not involved in her son’s life (“It was one of those rare occasions when she popped her head around my door” (ll. 31-32), “Our paths didn’t cross” (l. 46)). The mother comes home late at night and wakes up her son with her loud noises and eventual snoring. The narrator describes her as a vain woman with bleached hair and scarlet fingernails (ll. 51-67). Only when her lover, Dan, is around does she even bother to make herself look decent (ll. 86-87).The relationship between mother and son is affected by the mother’s heavy drinking. Matt often has to clean up after his mother, Kay, when she has been sick (l. 112). He knows that she is treated violently and that she tries to cover up the bruises (l. 105). Although the main character shows
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