Thursday, April 22, 2010
Updike's Separating
John Updike's, "Separating," is a short story that I can relate too. Because I see many households go through the same problems that the Maples have in this story. The father Richard Maple has committed adultery has to break the news to his four children. All of the children reacted differently because each child is a different age. Mr. Maple was a very harsh and selfish man in this story. First of all he had another woman on side that he hoped to marry and he was not even concerned about how he effecting has his entire family. Another way he was selfish was by not being truthful and explaining to his children why had separated. They probably would just assume that the parent’s relationship is going as planed and not the fact that their dad had betrayed them. This story is a perfect example how America's society today looks at marriage. Divorce has become so common that it did not seem like a huge deal to anyone. I hate the way the story because the reader does know if the family separates or if they try to work out their problems.
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This is a good interpretation of the short story because it very well relates to the modern day. The way the father is portrayed in the story is selfish because he did not think of what hurt that will be caused by his actions. This is not the only example of how a family may get broken up. This is the most common reason to why a family break up, the father falls in love with another and it is hard especially for the children who may look up to the father as a role model. The way the father is looking at it is that it is no big deal that there has to be a divorce which brings negative vibes towards marriage.
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