Life Sentence
The father in Ethan Coen's short story, "The Boys", is a man dealing with serious depression. The conflicts in his life have consumed him and he has lost control, a position that his desperately craves. At the midpoint of his years and stranded in a no-man's-land between his conscience and his trying boys, the father struggles to regain the upper hand on his routine called life. Passages throughout the story reveal the fathers mindset and develop his character into a man on the verge of an epiphany or perhaps a nervous breakdown. Either he will remain the doer of mind-numbing chores and pointless requests of his boys or he will admirably regain command in a life that was his to begin with
The father sees his children an "inconvenience" and an embarrassment. He hopes that his patience is not for nothing and that he will one day regain control of his life. " The actions that defined who he was: "marriage, child rearing, and even the physical act of sex appeared as quivering compulsions. There is no love from the father towards his boys and the boys lack a sense of patriarchal respect. " He has locked himself in a prison cell with his wife and boys and he, regrettably, was the one to lock the door and throw away the key. At times the father's patience wears thin and he has the urge to "strike" his children. The father's lack of control over his children and his day-to-day trials cause him to be constantly infuriated and depressed. His frustration builds and he realizes that his faults as a father have resulted in the boys' defects, "the one a suck-ass, the other a mute. When the waitress in the diner ignorantly replies to the father that she does not know what an omelette is he has to "choke down his rage and in an attempt to keep his composer he asks himself "what would Adolf Hitler do in this situation? Or Joe Stalin?" Both were fascist leaders of great power and symbolize the father's want for control. " In an anger swelled consideration the father concludes that the world "would make losers of them both. The relationship between the father and his sons seems to be merely a superficial charade.
Common topics in this essay:
Ethan Coen's,
Joe Stalin,
LIFE SENTENCE,
Adolf Hitler,
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