Glass Roses
The Glass Roses
Day to day, people attempt to live unconstrained by convention or circumstance. Often the people around us hold us back from thinking and feeling the way we truly do; However, there will come a time when we will need to say what we truly believe. In this story, “The Glass Roses”, the main character, Stephen, is faced with the issue regarding his father, “a real man”. When faced with his father telling him how to live and what to believe. Stephen is a young man working with his father and several other men as pulp-cutters. These men barely talk and they spend the time they aren’t working playing card games. Working together everyday, Stephen looks at his father as one of the most important people in his life. As his role model, Stephen finds it crucial to carry on his fathers thoughts and beliefs, in hopes that his own father wouldn’t think of him as being any less of man. To start, strength was one of the most important qualities Stephens father talked about, and showing emotion or weakness was frowned upon. Stephen never even thought to question any of his fathers views, so that is what Stephen believed aswell. Things changed one night, when Stephen wakes the Polack from a nightmare. Leka and Stephen begin talking and the two soon become friends. Leka begins telling Stephen stories of his life back home and the war he lived through. He recalls the red jacket his brother wore as a soldier and the fact that on horseback the cavalry was no match for the tanks and other machinery. Leka also recalls the glass roses that his mother kept on the mantle and how a bomb blast shook them, shattering them into a million pieces. Lekas stories have opened Stephen’s eyes to the idea of not everyone think the way that his father did. Through everything Leka has been through, Lekas thoughts on how a man should act are different then what Stephens father believed. Leka believes a real man is sensitive and expresses his emotions. For what other men ridicule
Day to day, people attempt to live unconstrained by convention or circumstance. Often the people around us hold us back from thinking and feeling the way we truly do; However, there will come a time when we will need to say what we truly believe. In this story, “The Glass Roses”, the main character, Stephen, is faced with the issue regarding his father, “a real man”. When faced with his father telling him how to live and what to believe. Stephen is a young man working with his father and several other men as pulp-cutters. These men barely talk and they spend the time they aren’t working playing card games. Working together everyday, Stephen looks at his father as one of the most important people in his life. As his role model, Stephen finds it crucial to carry on his fathers thoughts and beliefs, in hopes that his own father wouldn’t think of him as being any less of man. To start, strength was one of the most important qualities Stephens father talked about, and showing emotion or weakness was frowned upon. Stephen never even thought to question any of his fathers views, so that is what Stephen believed aswell. Things changed one night, when Stephen wakes the Polack from a nightmare. Leka and Stephen begin talking and the two soon become friends. Leka begins telling Stephen stories of his life back home and the war he lived through. He recalls the red jacket his brother wore as a soldier and the fact that on horseback the cavalry was no match for the tanks and other machinery. Leka also recalls the glass roses that his mother kept on the mantle and how a bomb blast shook them, shattering them into a million pieces. Lekas stories have opened Stephen’s eyes to the idea of not everyone think the way that his father did. Through everything Leka has been through, Lekas thoughts on how a man should act are different then what Stephens father believed. Leka believes a real man is sensitive and expresses his emotions. For what other men ridicule