Fact: Unexplained Migraines for 12 hours are not conducive to doing anything but playing soccer and sleeping.
Fact: I will try!!
So I'm really interested in the Father in CIotDitN. In the beginning of the novel, I think readers empathize with the father. He loyally takes care of his "behavior problemed" son in lieu of his wife dying tragically of a "problem with her heart." But by the end of the novel, the father has knocked out Christopher, killed Wellington and hid 2 years of letters from Chrisopher's mother. Whew. That is a hefty list. In these revelations, I think we as readers adjust our view on him because he commits very culturally taboo acts. Christopher travels from his home to London to get away from his father.
And the way the reader deals with the father is very complicated because we have Christopher's distinctly devoid of emotions narrative. It was Sihrisha who brought up the point that we put our own ToM onto Christopher's narrative. In this essay, I want to explore the father and how we understand him. Is he actually a very emotional character? Is he "good," "bad" or some kind of grey area?
Lists of quotes
"He held up his right hand and spread his fingers like a fan. I held up my left hand and spread my fingers out in a fan and we made our fingers and thumbs tough each other. We do this because sometimes Father wants to give me a hug, but I do not like hugging people so we do this instead, and it means that he loves me." (16)
"I do not tell lies. Mother used to say that this was because I was a good person.But it is not because I am a good person. It is because I can't tel lies." (19)
"And he said, "It's a bloody god, Christopher, a bloody dog." (20) Then Father banged the steering wheel with his fist and the car weaved a little bit across the dotted line in the middle of the road and he shouted, "I said leave it, for God's sake." (21) I could tell he was angry because he was shouting 21
There were tears coming out of his eyes, Wellington. "Yes, Christopher, you could say that, You could very well say that.
I know that they're working out what I'm thinking, but I can't tell what they're thinking...but this was nice, having father speak to me but not look at me 22-23
"Father said he didn't know what kind of heart attack she had and now wasn't the moment to be asking questions like that 27
I used to think that Mother and Father might get divorced. That was because they has lots of arguments and sometimes they hated each other. This was because of the stress of looking after someone who has Behavioral Problems like I have 46
47
49
"...I'm not interested in faces" 71
"What is this?" but he said it very quietly and I didn't realize he was angry because he wasn't shouting. "
"Holy fucking Jesus, Christopher. How stupid are you? This is what Siobhan calls a rhetorical question...it's difficult to spot a rhetorical question." (81)
"Mother had hit me sometimes because she was a very hot-tempered person, which means she gets angry more quickly than other people and she shouted more often. But Father was a more level-headed person, which means he didn't angry as quickly and he didn't shout as often. So I was very surprised when he grabbed me."
I had no memories for a shirt while...It was like someone swtiched me off and then switched me on again."
Then he locked the back door again and put the key into the little china jug that is shaped like a fat nun and he stood in the middle of the kitchen and closed his eyes. 83
"I only do it because I worry about you, because I don't want to see you getting into trouble, because I don't want you to get hurt. Do you understand?" I didn't know if I understood so I said, "I don't know." 87
In the fan scenes, never a replication of love
Mother: "I was not a very good mother. Maybe if things had been different, maybe if you had been different, I might have been better at it."
"But I said I couldn't take it anymore and eventually he got really cross and he told me that I was being stupid and said I should pull myself together and I hit him, which was wrong, but I was so upset."
"And you father is really pacient but I'm not" 107
"...the two of you together and thinking how you were really different with him. Much calmer. And you didn't shout at one another." 108-109
"Then I could hear that he was crying because his breath felt all bubbly and wet.
Phrases:...I did it for your good, Christopher....I just thought it was better if you didn't know"
"...because I didn't know how to explain. It was so complicated. So difficult. 114
"It's bloody hard telling the truth all the time...I want you to know that I'm trying. I really am." 120
"I think she cared more for that bloody dog than for me, for us. 121
"Father had murdered Wellington. That meant he could murder me, because I couldn't trust him, even though he had said, "Trust me," because he had told a lie about a big thing" 122
"bastard" 194
196 Fight
"And I don't care how long it takes...if it's one day and two minutes the next three minutes the next and it takes years I don't care. Because this is important. This is important more than anything else." And then he tore a little strip of skin away from the side of the thumbnail on his left hand."
Articles to be used: Keen "A Theory of Narrative Empathy" Palmer "The Whole Mind" Vermeule "Why do we care about lit Characters?"
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