This is one of the strangest stories that I have ever read. Why would anyone carve a statue of their father in prison? Granted, there are some bizarre people out there, but that is over the top. Then, just when I got my head around that idea, I have the notion struck from my mind. The father explains that he was actually a guard in the prison. Good grief, that certainly puts the twisted in plot twist. But anyway, I am still not entirely sure just how old the girl is. She could be anywhere from eighteen to thirty. For the sake of my mind I hope she is older rather than younger, but the story gives no clue.
What the heck is going on anyway? First, the father is missing and no one knows where he is. Next, he comes back and takes Ka to either a lake or the ocean, I'm still not sure which, and tells her that her statue is on the bottom. Then, he tells her the truth of how he got his scar. What gets me the most is that she just seems to accept this, she doesn't freak out or deny it or anything, she just acts like nothing is changed. To top it all off, they still go to the house of the woman who bought the statue in the first place. Now personally, I would feel that to be more than a little bit rude. I cannot imagine what the theme of this short story is meant to be. I mean, trust is blown out the window, respect is torn to shreds, decency is slaughtered, the moral of this story must be that traditional values are worthless. Good grief.
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4 comments:
Wow Dan. Way to basically tear the story to shreds. First off, I didn't think it was that bad, or twisted. This was actually probably my favorite short story. I enjoyed some of the mystery behind the father, and I definitely did not find it that odd for the daughter to try and depict what she thought her father was like in prison. It was a part of his life she knew almost nothing about, and she was probably trying to piece it together in her art. And when he tells her about throwing it in the water, I think she was definitely in shock. Her reaction for what he had done seemed both logical and mature to me. Likewise, I thought it was nice of them to visit the buyers in person and explain what happened rather than just leave them hanging. I really think you need to try and find more positive aspects in what you are reading, though, ha.
It wasn't just a sculpture of her father in prison, it was an emotional work of art that represents how she sees her father. The story is not at all saying that traditional values are worthless, it's just saying that what is in the past is in the past. Nothing can be done to fix what has been done. His daughter acted very well and respectably, I know if that had been some I had made, I would have flipped out. She still faces up to the fact that she doesn't have the statue, she goes there to tell the woman.
I think I have to agree with Aaron on this one. The story definitely wasn't my favorite, but I don't think it was that bad. I think she made the statue because of her respect for her father, and she wanted to be close to him and do something to honor him. I can relate to that. I did my research paper on Vietnam to show my dad that I did have interest in his life. The relating themes is hard though. I thought it was about the parents not being quite up to par, but this one is hard to peg. I don't understand why the mother is so worried about the dad leaving Annie. As far as the statue goes, I guess you just have to have and eye and appreciation for art.
I think that I would lose some respect for my father if I would have found that out. Did you find it out how she freaked out about her father not being there? I didn't think that it was a big deal. People go for walks or out to breakfast all the time. I thought she kind of overreacted a bit. She even brought the police into it! I don't think that they really took her seriously though, considering they just told her to wait it out basically. A lot of these characters in these short stories seem to be crazy and have their own problems.
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