In honor of father’s day I just wanted to reflect on good
dads and bad dads in fiction. Of course we all remember that Jack Torrance from
The Shining was not exactly father of year. I don’t think I will ever forget the
scenes of him chasing Danny through that haunted hotel.
And then on the good side there was… hmmm. I’m trying to
come up with an exemplary father. Of course Harry Potter’s was dead, and
Dorothy’s was dead, and Luke’s was thought dead, but turned out to be Darth, but
in the end he turned out okay, I guess. Hercules had Zeus, and he was
satisfactory in the father department, but he could be fairly tough. There was
Pa in the Waltons and Pa on Little House on the Prairie, but I’m hard pressed to
come up with a whole baseball team of fine fictitious dads.
Why is it so many dad’s are out of the picture in popular
fiction?
I’m sure there are more examples in fiction; they just
aren’t coming to mind. Because I have a great dad in real life, I guess I never
thought about it before.
So on this Father’s day I want to say thanks to all the
great real and fictitious dads. We don’t intend to take you for granted, but
when you do your job well, we sometimes fail to remember.
Can you come up with any great dads in
fiction?
That's a great question. I think it's because so many dramatic issues might work out with less drama if there was a great dad in the picture. I know this is true in real life since I work with teenagers. On the other hand, my dad was terrific.
ReplyDeleteIn fiction...The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
Yea, Susan I think you are correct.
ReplyDeleteAnd I forgot about the dad in The Road.