1. Is there more than one theme in the story? If so, what is it?
In the story "Young Man's Folly" by Susan Michalicka, I think there is more that one theme. I think the main theme is about the affect a separation of a family has on the children and other family members. It seemed as though the separation of this family was very hard on the young boy. In the story the boy is always wearing his father's old clothes, and smelling the sent of his missed father. Also, when the son proposed the idea of living with his father, he got shut down by his father's selfish excuse being that he has started a new life with a new person who is having such a great time with, and then also added that they are going to travel to California for a while. The boy was very heartbroken by this response. The mother had then made a quilt out of his fathers old shirts for her sad and disappointed son, as it could be something he could remember him by. Although I believe this is the main message that has come from the story, I think another message was also portrayed during the story. I think that message was that we should always respect and care for people regardless of there appearance or weight. Throughout the story the husband of the women continuously made rude comments towards his wife. He would say that she wasn't looking very pretty, and start to look really old. Also that she was gaining a lot of weight and was acting really lazy. The wife also went to a lot of work by re-decorating the house, and all the husband did was complain about everything she had re-done and said that he had hated it. These comments that he made towards this women's appearance, weight and hard work were not caring, disrespectful and rude. Saying things like this to someone can highly effect their self esteem about themselves and their body image. This is what I think the other theme is in the story.
2. Is the story realistic? Why or why not? Can you relate to the story?
Personally I believe that the story "Young Man's Folly" does have a realistic story line. I think this because what happens is the story happens to many families in the world all the time. In the story the father of a family leaves the mother and son. This is a realistic part of the story because this happens to many families. He left the family because the mother was not living up to the father expectations of her personal appearance and her actions. He felt as though the mother was becoming old looking and lazy. He was not happy that she was gaining weight and also made rude comments on how she was redoing the house. This story is also realistic because many man do suddenly leave their families, and not try bother with their kids or try to take care of them. In the story the father of the young boy does not want to stay connected with his son, or care for him at all. The boy feels unwanted from his father, and this is defiantly the case for many children in the word. I personally cannot relate to this storyline, but I know that there are many families in this world that experience the same thing as this family does. So many families have a parent leave their family and children's lives and begin a new life with new people and new surroundings. Also, almost ever divorced person has a new relationship with someone else, and creates a new life with new people. Although I cannot relate to this story line, I can feel as though the children are crushed by the fact that their mom and dad aren't going to be together anymore, and even more upset when a parent completely abandons their child for a new life and a new person. This is why I believe this story is very much realistic.
3. What is the theme of this story? Have you ever read a story that has had a similar theme? How do the themes relate to each other?
The theme of the story "Young Man's Folly" by Susan Michalicka is about the affect a separation of a family has on the children and on other family members. In the story, the separation of the parents seemed to be have a huge affect on the young boy of the family. He was always depressed, upset, and never acted like his old self after his parents had split up. The boy was also more hurt when he met with his father one day to ask if he could live with, but was told that he is living a happy life with his new girlfriend and that they were going to be travelling to California for a while, and that he wasn't going to be able to live with him. Hearing this from his father was very saddening and only made his depressed and sad life much more worse. Not only did this separation have an affect on the boy, but also affected the mother. She was upset when her beloved husband started to make rude comments toward and then surprisingly left their family. She was left to look after their boy and be responsible for him all on her own, with no help or assistance. She also got to watch her ex-husband live his life in freedom, with no child to care for, no job, and getting to travel to California. She knew she would never be able to live like her ex-husband was. I have read a similar story where the theme was the affect that parental fighting has on the children or other family members. In that story, the parents of a young girl were continuously fighting. They were yelling at each other all the time and it made the young girl scared, sad, insecure, and lonely. These feelings portrayed by the children caused by their parents behaviour were both the same in each story. In each story the parents actions towards each other made both children behave differently. They become shy, and depressed, and never acted like normal kids. Having their behaviour like this can really affect them for the rest of their life. it could cause problems in their own future relationships after having to experience their parents unstable relationship, could affect getting a job by having a shy and depressed like personality, and can defiantly interfere with their education and school work because they are not focused on school with the depression of their parents and can sometimes feel as though there is not much point to continuing with their education. This is the theme of the story "Young Man's Folly" and how a similar story's theme can relate to this one.
