Father and Son: Communication Failure

1. Father and Son: Communication Failure Structure

2. Learning Objectives • To identify the structural technique in “Father and Son” • To understand how Bernard McLaverty uses structure to enhance the themes of the story.

3. Think Back… At the beginning of this topic, before reading “Father and Son” we read the lyrics of Cat Stevens’ song of the same name. • In Your Groups • Recall and discuss what was unique about the structure of the lyrics. • What did we talk about regarding the balance of the lyrics? 1min

4. Two Different Points of View “Father and Son” by Bernard McLaverty is similar to the song in the way it is structured. In Groups Discuss and write down the benefits of having the two different sides of the story and having access to the thoughts of the characters. 4mins

5. Activity • Objective : We will accumulate a class knowledge of the story’s structure. In Your Groups You will be given time to take notes on • What we know about the relationship through what the characters say to each other. (Looking at dialogue). • What we learn about the relationship from reading the character’s point of view. 7mins As Much Info as Possible

6. Activity • You will now be given an A3 sheet of paper. • Write down the notes that your group as assembled in a way that is easy to understand. 3mins

7. Activity: Pass on the Knowledge • We are going to pass our sheets from group to group. • When you receive a new sheet, tick off any information that your group already has and write any data that previous groups have missed. 3mins per sheet

8. In the End… • You should now have a comprehensive list of information on the information that we obtain from dialogue and thought. • Add any extra information into your own notes. 4mins

9. Desperate to reconnect with his son His hand shakes in the morning He had to collect his son from London after he got into trouble His son is a disappointment to him He thinks his son has gone “off the rails” because of the loss of his mother He has fond memories of their more typical relationship; fishing etc He envies the relationship his son has with friends He worries about his son’s eating habits and where he disappears off to. He has very vivid memories of collecting his son from England Father Father

10. He is angry and disrespectful He keeps his father out of his business He is sick of the constant questioning Thinks his Dad is ‘past it’. He is aware of his father’s routine He sleeps in the daytime because he fears the night Thinks his dad if a coward, weak and paranoid He resents his father’s attempts to provide balance: he misses the more masculine figurehead He has fond memories of their more typical relationship. Son Son

11. In Groups, Discuss and Write Down • Look at your notes on speech and thought; • What knowledge does the reader have that the character’s do not? • Why is this strange? • What information is the reader left without? • How does the structure of the story impact on the reader emotionally? (Think about sympathy with the characters.) 7mins

12. The story isn’t being told by one person, it is being told by both the father and son. This narrative style is very effective, especially since they don’t talk to one another much, as it allows us to understand how each feels about the other. This is ironic as we can understand each of them much more than they understand each other. The narrative style lets you get inside their minds and find out what is really happening and how they are personally feeling. And we feel sad for both of them. From the son’s perspective, we learn that his father is, in his eyes, a ‘coward’. “You undress in the dark for fear of your own shadow falling on the window-blind ... Mice have more courage!” He is comparing him to mice saying they have more courage that is as low as you can compare someone to. Mice are little sneaky, scared of everything, always running away and also animals, this boy is comparing his father to one of them and in doing so he is belittling him and showing us that he has little respect for him.

13. Task • Following on from the sample paragraph, write down an example of what we learn from the father’s thoughts that remains unknown to the son.