altar of the family
...use he can’t play with the local boys, he is forced to play with his sister, and his parents still look down on him in disgust. The is no real happy resolution to this story, it sort of finishes off leaving the reader in a questionable state, but one thing is quite clear, is this boys life carries on like this, the young boy will just grow up to be a empty, hollow, depressed version of his father. Meanwhile on the other hand, “On Saturday Afternoon,” has quite a different story line. Basically it’s about a young boy, and how he comes a cross a man who wants to hang himself. The story is set In Nottingham, England during the Great Depression of the late 20’s and early 30’s, so already there’s about of understanding that it’s going to be hard going in the story. The story is set in first person, so you get a more reflective and personal experience to what action goes on in the story. As in ‘The Altar Of The Family’, there are massive family tensions, with the father of the family yet again being the centre of the problem, but in this story it is all the father, as he is always getting drunk and very abusive to his family. Thus affecting the young boy again. Another important aspect of a short story, well all narratives and fiction writings as well, is the theme. As without a theme the story wouldn’t really have much point to it, and have no meaning. The theme to ‘‘Altar Of The Family’’, is one of a struggling family, and bad relationships, and maybe even elements of mental and psychological abuse. The traces of the abuse right throughout the story, and it’s basically all from the father to the son, eg “Damned if I bred a son to go and cover himself with white feathers, take them off you fool.”pg114, the boy only had a few harmless feathers on his head playing as Indians, and yet his father uses this to attack and degrade his son. Meanwhile, “On Saturday Afternoon” has more of a dark, depressive theme, helped by the fact its set during the depression in a slummy area of Nottingham, and also a man hangs himself. These things combined sort of give the story a dark aroma. Probably the most important element of any story ever written, is of corse the characters. Characters basically give the story life, and give it that human touch the reader can relate to. The characters in “The Altar Of The Family”, are basically the family, the young boy, the father, mother and to a lesser extent the sister. The main characters are obviously the young boy, and maybe even the father, as he is involved with the boy quite a lot. The mother and sister are lesser characters, as they aren’t really mentioned in significant quantities in the story. The characters in ‘...