Separation in the Father by Hugh Garner

Separation is a feeling that everyone must face throughout their life. Separation can affect a person’s motivation and determination. When a person has to encounter separation, they must decide to accept the separation and move on in life or to deny the separation and become a nuance to everyone. This is what John Purcell has to decide within “The Father”. In the story, John faces separation between him and his son Johnny. John makes terrible decisions during the father and son scout banquet, some of these decisions include drinking, becoming overly obnoxious and embarrassing. These actions made Johnny run away from John symbolizing that their relationship is forever broken and can not be fixed. John Purcell is described as a lazy, forgetful, and self-centered person. These factors will make John and Johnny’s connection more difficult to achieve. During John’s and Johnny’s conflict, John decides to drink at the scout banquet, which shows John’s irresponsibility. After the conflict between John and Johnny, the separation begins to become more distant. John becomes lonely and regrets his decisions because he realized that their relationship was forever broken. Through John, Hugh Garner reveals that when a lazy person makes terrible decisions. They can make a distant relationship even more distant resulting in loneliness and regret.

John is a character who does not think before doing, this character trait will result in irresponsibility and ignorance. At the beginning of the story John is defined as a lazy person, the reason for this is because when Johnny’s mom went to John to ask if he would go to the scout banquet with his son, John has a hard time immediately saying yes. Another example that would express John’s laziness is because “He didn’t look forward to an evening spent with… a bunch of professional fathers, who were “real pals” with their sons” (1). John’s laziness transfers to his father role because he does not want to participate in tasks with his son like going to a scout banquet. John’s forgetfulness of his son is reflected by his laziness to complete tasks with his son, John forgets important things about his son like activities that Johnny likes to do. John does not think before doing most actions which leads to forgetting the little things about Johnny. For example, John does not remember “how the boy dressed on scout night” (2). John addresses the way the separation will affect him but does not consider how it will affect Johnny, who is the one suffering in the relationship. Although John wants to improve the relationship between him and his son, John is still self-centered which makes a genuine connection between a father and son unlikely to achieve. When John is asked to go to the scout banquet he almost blurts out “Scout meeting! What do I look like?” (1) this presents that John does not think about anyone else’s feelings, he indicates that he does not care about anyone but himself. John understands that the relationship that he and his son has is distant but when he tries to fix it, he does not do anything or fails to do the right thing. When John goes to the scout banquet with his son, the separation becomes more visible and John is forced to confront and overcome the outcome of his decisions.

When John and Johnny arrive at the scout banquet, John makes a horrific decision which leads to the separation of him and his son becoming much more intense later in the story. John has extremely poor decision-making skills, especially when it comes to the relationship with his son. During the scout banquet, John is greeted by a character named Charley Murdoch. Charley tells John he has whiskey in the back of his car and asks if John wants a drink, John “had three good drinks apiece” (8). This indicates that John could become drunk later which would affect his and his son’s relationship forever. This makes John’s poor decision-making skills more visible. The reason for this is because John did not need to have a drink at the scout banquet but he decided to drink anyway which results in a negative outcome later in the story. After John drinks, he comes back inside and becomes visibly obnoxious, which makes Johnny feel embarrassed. The reason that Johnny feels embarrassed is that John’s three drinks ended up making him drunk. John does not realize that he is embarrassing his son, the embarrassment becomes more visible since “There was a short burst of embarrassed laughter from the tables” (9). John’s poor decision-making makes the outcome of the conflict more intense. Although John wants to be a good father and be closer to his son. John is still irresponsible when taking care of Johnny. John had his “earlier drinks… which made him laugh too loudly” (7). This indicates that John is irresponsible to take care of his son, the reason for that is because John would rather drink than spend quality time with Johnny. When John becomes irresponsibly drunk during the scout banquet, he makes the separation between him and his son more noticeable. 

John deciding to drink at the scout banquet leads to a terrible outcome that will affect the relationship between him and his son. After John drinks, Johnny feels betrayed and runs away from John, “The boy was half a block away by now” (10). Johnny running away from John symbolizes their separation. When Johnny ran away, John knew that he would become more lonely than he already was. The reason for this is because Johnny does not want to be around his father anymore. John chases after Johnny and Johnny cries “Leave me alone, Daddy, Please!” (10). This states that Johnny is completely done with the relationship and that Johnny has broken off from his father. After Johnny ran away, John reflects on his previous actions and becomes more regretful about all the terrible things that he did to Johnny. John yelled to get Johnny’s attention saying “Johnny wait for me. Johnny! Listen I want-” (10). John finally realized his mistakes and regrets all of his actions. John knows that the reason he and his son’s relationship will always be negative is because of his own decisions.

Through John, Hugh Garner reveals that when a lazy person makes wrong decisions. They make a distant relationship even more distant. The separation that John Purcell deals with in the relationship with his son ends up hurting both of them. John Purcell is described as a lazy person who does not do anything for his family, but then when he is put in a situation where he needs to be with his son he begins to become lazy, he chooses to become self-centered, which is usually the state he is always in. In the end, John only becomes a regretful person. The reason for this is because John finally understood his mistakes. This is a perfect example of what happens when a lazy person in a relationship, becomes more separate and ends off negatively. Everyone will eventually face separation of some sort, but it is up to the individual to maintain the effort to continue the relationship or stay the same person and end the relationship. All people face separation but only the ones who try to fix the separation will result in no separation or positive separation.