Sunday, January 4, 2009
Sean Wilsey's life still in pieces returns home from Cascade, the treatment center. Rejecting the world Sean's sits in his room and looks out to the San Francisco Bay recalling: " Mom was depressed and humiliated and suicidal. Mom experienced brief spasms of superhuman energy to save the planet, to shop,to be pampered to escape, to combine all of these desires. Dad was hardworking, ambitious, a striver, a social success at last. I had escaped from St. Mark's, Woodhall, Cascade. I was home" (314). Remembering his home, although not great, it was home. If someone were not to read this memoir but instead only read this quote, a person could almost say they have read the book. Sean describes his mother and father to a T! In a way he also describes himself by the way he speaks of his parents. There is one major change however in Sean's feelings. Through this quote we are beginning to see signs of Sean's compassion for his father. In the beginning of the memoir Sean spoke poorly of his father; but now he has shifted his opinions. Maybe this shift was one shift to soon. Later in the memoir Sean and his mother, Father and Dede, Sean's "step-mother," had been attending and opera when sean made an attempt to greet his father: " When he was two feet away I smiled and said, Hey Dad! he brushed by without a flicker of hesitation giving me half a second of eye contact. I ran after him and grabbed his shoulder and said, Hey dad it's me! He nodded absently then looked over my shoulder"(324). It was to soon to be favoring his father. It seems as though his father could care less that he was back from the treatment center. Maybe Coming home wasn't such a good idea after all.
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5 comments:
This sounds like a really deep book. I mean you would think a father would be excited to see a son just back from treatment, no matter what they were there for. A parent should always be supportive of there kids when they are working in the right direction. It's hard to do things on your own and parents should be a major support system, although that's not always true. I think it's cool how you also mentioned favoring the father too soon. We all tend to judge whether or not we like someone much to early in our relationship, even if we haven't met we do it my appearence and dimeanor. I think it's something we can all admit to doing but none the less it's never harmful learn more before deciding.
Nice job!!
It really felt like I had read the book after reading this post. The main character's stuggles with his home life are somthing that people deal with everyday and it's nice to see that sometimes it gets better. Even though the main character knows his home is not ideal, he knows that he is home.
It sounds like the father was pretty mean to his son when he barely even gave a slight nod. Every father/son has a special connection that should not be broken but it appears that the two in this book had not known each other at all. Also i agree with christina, a parent should always try to support their children when the child is trying to do something good or they are having a tough time.
This sounds like a very interesting book. It seems as though it presents themes that are relative in our lives. I agree in that parents should be there to support their kids. However, I think that this is something that is not all that common. There are many relationships similar to the father and sons relationship in the book. It shows us how, as much as we want them to be, parents are not always the support their children need.
The role of parents in a child's life is crucial. This boy's maturity to realize that this is his home, though maybe not how he would hope, he's home. No wonder this boy has had difficult times with a lack of parenting. A kid's relationship with their parents should be a special and loving bond, and I feel bad for the poor boy that doesn't have that in his life.
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