Freed's exploration of the theme of dysfunction is often compared to that of Shepard. However, the main distinction is that of tone: while Shepard's play is dark and somber, Freed's text is a dark, ironical comedy which ironically sketches the tensioned relationships between the members of a reunited family and their inability to communicate. The relationship between Noah and Seth is especially strained, as Seth seems to force himself into

Father and Son Relationships Though written from very different perspectives, "Death of a Salesman" and the Namesake share a number of important similarities, particularly with regard to similar messages about fathers and sons. The conflicts and complexities of father/son relationships are explored by both Arthur Miller and Jhumpa Lahiri in their characters Willy, Biff, and Happy Loman in "Death of a Salesman" and Ashoke and Gogol Ganguli in the Namesake. Yet,

Eliezer and his father Over the course of the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, the narrator Eliezer's relationship with his father shifts from that of a conventional father-son relationship to a relationship in which Eliezer eventually becomes the stronger of the two men. Eliezer quickly becomes a man because of the historical circumstances to which he is subjected. Growing up in a concentration camp he soon learns that his father

Architect: A Son's Journey could easily be viewed as a solipsistic documentary. The filmmaker deliberately titles the film as My Architect, with a subtitle A Son's Journey as a way of signaling the viewer that this is Nathaniel Kahn's vision of his father. Nathaniel's purpose for making the film is expressly stated as being the discovery of his father's identity, especially following the mystery of his death. Yet through

Kim Fathering Kim The concept of a "coming of age" novel or a Bildungsroman is fairly well established, typically exploring the loss of innocence and the growing awareness -- both of the self and of the external world -- of the protagonist of the story, typically an adolescent male. There are many variations on this overall idea of a coming of age novel, of course, with characters and plots the cover a

The remarkable parable of the prodigal son has instrumental instructional value. As Donahue points out, the Lukan context is the original and most meaningful, as it pivots around the father’s behavior and firmly establishes the older son as being the antagonist. The parable of the prodigal son has multiple layers of meaning, and even establishes new paradigms for the human relationship with God. On a more mundane level, the parable