Fictive Fragments of a Father and Son

 

Fictive Fragments of a Father and Son…

            After reading this piece I was left wondering how bizarre it is for a father and son to be so disconnected.  I know parent- child relationships are not easy but to grow up with a father and no know much about them boggles me.  Children are directly shaped but the experience of a parent.  Not knowing much about a parent leaves a child lost in who they are.  A child is left to put the pieces together with the little information they have.  They rely strictly on the imagination.  We see this in this narrative as the narrator makes up stories and assumptions about his father’s life to figure him out.  He has to try out different scenarios in his mind to fit the puzzle pieces of his father together.  

I asked myself why a parent would not want to share their story with their child, especially one that is so important to their culture and history? 

            What I came to realize at the conclusion was that maybe for the father to move on in life he had to forget his past.  If he opened himself up to all of the hurt would he have been as successful?  In adopting  being “200 percent American” gave him everything he has today.  Maybe if he exposed his son to his terrible past he might of felt it as a burden.  Sometimes in life in order to move on we have to leave the past there.  If he was to open himself up to that portion of his life it keeps him from becoming fully “white”.  “My father’s name was originally Katsuji Uyemura.  Then Tom Katsuji Uyeumura.  Then Tom Katsuji Mura.  The Tom K. Mura.”  As the father became more “white” he moved farther and farther away from his identity.  He is not the man from the interment camp anymore.  He is a blue collar American. 

The Third and Final Continent

 

The title of this story is significant to the overall means of the piece.  “The Third and Final Continent”, symbolizes the narrators journey to America.  He started out in his homeland where he was born.  Then moved to London and now finds himself in America building a life for himself.  Through his travels he has come into his own and learned a great deal along the way.  The title has a dramatic edge to it, “The Third and Final..”  gives the impression of a long haul of some sort.  A tone of, this is it!   On the “final continent” of America is where he becomes settled with himself and the world around him.  He begins to set roots and build a life.  It is in America where he resides and the final scene where he drives past the old house he first boarded at with is son in the car brings this narrative full circle.  This piece is a representation of the old saying, third time’s a charm.  This is because the third time around the narrator became complete.  This sense of wholeness did not come without confusion and obstacles but he made it through.  The charm in this case is the land of the free, America.  This narrative paints a positive light on America unlike some of the other pieces we read throughout the semester.  There is a sense of hope at the conclusion which left me as the reader feeling proud of the country I reside in. 

One aspect of the story that struck me was Mrs. Croft and the relationship she shared with the narrator.  Mrs. Croft is a symbol of tradition.  We see this from the first moment the narrator encounters her.  She only takes Harvard or Tech borders in her house and dresses in almost uniform attire, long black skirt and white blouse.  Even though she is old school she is also fierce which gives Mrs. Croft an edge.  She is a woman in control.  She is a good character to balance out the narrator.  He is caught between two worlds, the new and the old.  What is special about Mrs. Croft is that even thought to represents the old world and ways of tradition she is about progress.  I get this impression for her persistent comment to brag about the flag on the moon.  The fact that she has lived so long into the modern world represents that there is always a place for tradition.  It might not being the leading aspect of life but it serves a purpose and contributes to a person being. 

“But each evening when I returned the same thing happened: she slapped the bench, ordered me to sit down, declared that there was a flag on the moon, and declared that it was splendid.  I said it was splendid, too, and then we sat in silence.  As awkward as it was, and as endless as it felt to me then, the nightly encounter lasted only about ten minutes; inevitably she would drift off to sleep…”

This is my favorite scene in the story because Mrs. Croft reminds me of my grandfather.  It is never said that Mrs. Croft has Alzheimer but from this nightly encounter we can assume so and that brought me back to my own childhood.  My grandfather suffered from Alzheimer and similar situation like the narrator experienced would happen.  Even though they were repetitive conversations I found comfort in them.  They made me feel at peace and secure. I connect with the narrator and his emotions that come along with his interactions with Mrs. Croft.