REDEMPTION IN MY FATHERS LIFE

The relationship between his parents, however, was very complicated as well as strained. It looked like Raymond was the only person who had a good relationship with his father and the two were close. Their love was also unconditional with a strong bond between them. Fairly enough, we can say that his father cared for Raymond and put so much effort through all his life in a bid to make his son have a good life on earth (The Carver Chronotope). In the first half of the story we can see how much Raymond doesn’t want to be like his father as well as all the bad things his father has done throughout his life. For instance, when his mother was weeping, Raymond’s father “put his arm around her and patted her shoulder vaguely” (Carver, pp.

3) and pretended he didn’t know about anything even though he clearly did and no matter how the family seemed to be dysfunctional, they still cared for each other. In the end, when his father finally dies, Raymond wept bitterly as a huge impact was caused in the author’s life since the two were very close, but he finally realized he had to learn to move on. While Raymond still looked up to his father (in particular when his father made many successes in life), he also intended to gain some good lessons from his father’s many mistakes. He loved his father dearly but got quite embarrassed by his father’s actions al through his life. Raymond mentions how there are some things he never had the chance to say to his father that he wished he had (Cornell).

In my opinion, this story is a lesson that we should always be grateful for what we have and try to do our best to look past the bad and into the good because what we may dislike or even hate about somebody will eventually be gone when they die but what we love about them will probably remain with us in our memories. However, it tends to take so much efforts to learn from someone’s mistakes especially when that is the only life one knows, just like Raymond’s case. Even though loved by his father, Raymond followed his father’s mistakes. However, he was still loved and cared for by his family. ""My Father's Life" Response. " Alexcornellsummer10, 5 July 2010, alexcornellsummer10.