Review of bastard
...What is most disturbing throughout is his lack of feeling that he missed out on having a father. His feeling that he missed nothing; however that may be a tribute to his mother. His Mother raised him and did her best by him. She tried to make relationships with men work, in what I took as an attempt to give Miguel a father figure to look up to. Eventually she gave up and focused her energies on keeping a roof over their head and food on the table. Miguel like most children from single parent families resented the time his mother spent at work and his time alone. This resentment eventually manifested itself in his running away. Miguel does not go into any great detail about what happened while he was “traveling the country” for eight months. He does not explain how a sixteen year old male made his way on his own, what he did, or where he went on his travels. This entire part of his life is a mystery to me. Did he finally find a mentor, or father figure to guide him? The reader is left hanging during this part. When Miguel finally decides to return, it is to find his mother broken woman. Here he finally shows some sort of feeling toward his mother and at her urging, (which is still unexplained) joins the Navy. The final scene in this essay is where we learn from Miguel’s mother tells him as a sort of test of loyalty, that he does indeed have a living father. Miguel reacts to this revelation with the same emotionless ...