Skip to main content

Fatherhood: An Instruction Manual

Image
By

The Need for a Strong Patriarchal Society

as Explained by Our Cultural Heritage

By: Michael L. Putnam


http://users.wpi.edu/~m1putt/Suff.htm

"There is the evil father, sometimes depicted as a monster, or as a villain like Darth Vader in Star Wars. If we take Atticus Finch to be the greatest dad, perhaps one of literature’s most vile fathers is Huck Finn’s. Pap harasses Huck for wearing good clothes and going to school. “Starchy clothes – very. You think you’re a good deal of a big-bud, don’t you?” He accuses Huck of trying to act better than his own father. Pap remarks that no one in his family could ever read, and that he certainly does not want his son to be smarter than he is. He demands that Huck read him something, not believing that Huck can, and soon becomes quite furious as he realizes his son’s new found ability. “I’ll lay for you smarty; and if I catch you about that school I’ll tan you good…. I never seen such a son.” He makes Huck hand over the dollar that Judge Thatcher "paid" him and then climbs out the window to go drinking in the town. Later in the story, pap and Huck exchange words again: “[Pap] said he’d cowhide me till I was black and blue if I didn’t raise some money for him. I borrowed three dollars… and pap took it and got drunk, and went… cussing… and carrying on… then they jailed him… and had him before court, and jailed him again for a week.”"

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Old post from the Anthropik network

By
"I noticed, when she delivered the plate of fruit, that my Balian hostess was also balancing a tray containing many little green bowls-small, boatshaped platters, each of them woven neatly from a freshly cut section of palm frond. The platters were two or three inches long, and within each was a small mound of white rice. After handing me my breakfast, the woman and the tray disappeared from view behind the other buildings, and when she came by some minutes later to pick up my empty plate, the tray was empty as well. * On the second morning, when I saw the array of tiny rice platters, I asked my hostess what they were for. Patiently, she explained to me that they were offerings for the household spirits. When I inquired about the Balinese term that she used for "spirit," she repeated the explanation in Indonesian, saying that these were gifts for the spirits of the family compound, and I saw that I had understood her correctly. She handed me a bowl of sliced papaya and...
19 comments
Read more

Country Bumpkin Charm

By
Each time I fly back to the big city, I sneak up on my old friend Tim. After surprising him with a traditional Inspector Clouseau / Kato maneuver, we drive around for Auld Lang Syne. While we hit most of our old haunts, the past we worship briefly resuscitates, through the well-regarded stories we share. We exchange our lively anecdotes; some unspoken for decades, as I cruise an old beater past the house where we dropped off a dropsy friend with a fine-feather we adorned in his cap, so his dad could get a good laugh at the boys out on the town. After a sentimental pizza, I hit the free-for-all freeway, where I drive in the slow lane. Tim says I drive like a country bumpkin. We come to a stop light and glance over at the racecar next to us, booming out rapid bass beats from its speakers. Tim doesn’t stare at the people, but I do, ‘cause I’m freshly fallen off the spud wagon, landed directly at Dulles Airport . Fifteen years in Idaho changes my outlook. At the airport, I watched pass...
2 comments
Read more

May Writing Prompt

By
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea Hello fellow aspiring Idahoans who are chalk full of creative jangling juices, while dangling over precipices. What we are hoping for here are the most imaginative things that you think a fortunate diver might find at the very bottom of Redfish Lake. The more far-fetched the item -the better. Please dig deep and try to touch bottom here. Stretch that flaccid imagination out for a walk around the sparkly lake and shake off those Winter Doldrums. We encourage your comments:
4 comments
Read more