Parent-Children Relationship In First Born Son By Ernest Buckler
Throughout life, parents will do what they think needs to be done to make their children's future the best it can be. However, the values of a parent and the values of a child may not be the same, affecting the relationship between the two. Ernest Buckler writes about the difference in ideas between a son and father on what's important in life and the values one believes in. Within the short story 'firstborn son' David wants to leave the family farm and move to the city where he believes people are happier and more alive. On the farm, he's sick of doing 'the same damn thing over and over from morning to night'. Davids's father Martin on the other hand believes that the farm is very important. It is something you can call truly your own. The community cares about them and will help you out through thick and thin unlike in the city where everyone is too busy running circles in their own lives to stop for anyone else.
In the end, David decides to stay on the farm for as long as his parents are alive but after that, he wants nothing to do with it. When David talks like this it makes martin feel like he as lost another son. In his short story 'First Born Son', Ernest Buckler uses diction and imagery to depict the conflict between what parents believe is right for their children and what children actually value in life, affecting the relationship between the two. Ernest Buckler uses imagery to show the difference between Martin and Davids's opinion on the farm. When Martin explains that life on the farm he talks about 'the brown waves of the earth. . . that [he has] opened. . . to the sun and the air and the rain. 'comparing the plowed fields to waves takes away the hard and aggressive connotations that come to mind and replaces them with soft, flowing movements. Martin does this again when describing the 'waving growth-flu garden rows'. Davids father believes that every day is full of new experiences while David believes that life on the farm is boring and repetitive with ' your nose in the ground all day long, from morning till night like a dammed ox. . . cooped up in that dammed circle of trees'.
David compares this lifestyle to one of an animals showing that he believes life on the farm is not truly living but doing longs to live in the city where ' there is movement and light and laughing'. He believes there is always something new happening in the city with an abundance of new experiences. The massive difference in opinions between David and his father causes great change in what martin believed was a strong father and son relationship.
