"A Father" and Child Development

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes Bharati Mukherjee's short story "A Father". The paper points out firstly that the use of 'a,' which implies a kind of arbitrary selection of a father, is appropriate given that the story is a narrative of unwed pregnancy by artificial insemination. The paper argues that the tale's title stresses the story's theme about the lies of patriarchal authority and male dominance. The paper concludes that the story shows how truly useless 'a father' is to a mother and daughter.

From the Paper:

"Besides the theme of a culture clash, the story deals with parental conflicts bubbling beneath the surface as well as the shifting cultural values that occur when a family comes in contact with the west. Despite his idealization of a patriarchal way of life, where the man is the head of the family, Mr. Bhowmick does not reign supreme over his own family unit. His wife insisted that the family move to the United States. Mr. Bhowmick did not want to move. Mr. Bhowmick blames this for his daughter's unmarried, unwed, and unattractive plight, but the fact that it was his wife's decision to come to America indicates that the family never had a male reigning supreme over the children and the woman of the household, in contrast to Mr. Bhowmick's idealized vision of Indian family life."

More papers on "A Father" and Child Development:

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• Term Paper # 46633 : "Single Fathers and Child Custody"

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