Papa Chapter 1 Summary

Charles Van Doren once said,“I've learned a lot about good and evil. They are not always what they appear to be”. Often we tend to judge people off of what we first see in them; many times we let their words and actions describe them before we really get to know them and their intentions. One of the main characters, Papa, as expressed in the book, often denies helping others because he knows that it is best for him and his son's survival. The book starts out with two unnamed characters, Papa and the boy. They are in an apocalyptic type situation and they trying to get to the coast and head south, where it is warm. Their main goal is survival, and during their route to the coast, the father does anything in his power to keep his son safe. In
As the two progress through the tretourous cold and snow they encounter a house where they believe they might actually get a break. They are always hungry and low on supplies. Once they get in the house the author describes that they ran into a cellar, the father figured there would be some type or rations within it. Once they got down there they saw two naked people that were begging for help, one had a terrible injury with a limb missing. The father reacts quick saying to the boy to hurry out of the house, when they get up out of the cellar they see four mean heading towards the house and the book it to the woods (110). The father instinctively reacts within this situation to get him and his boy out of the house as quickly as possible. The father knew they would not be able to help the two as they did not even have enough food for themselves. Not only that, if they would have stayed they would have been captured by the four men. This last piece doesn’t necessarily make it good, but it does show how fortunate they were by the Father making this decision. The Father again instinctively acted upon the situation because he knew if they
The father has killed someone, he has abandoned two helpless people and left them in a cellar to die, and he has taken back everything from a homeless man and more, including the clothes from which the man had already owned. These three actions are truly evil, no matter what anyone says, this is evil, unless justified through reasoning. The Father only mission is to keep his son safe and alive. Any parent would do these things if was to keep their kid alive. Given the circumstances, in a apocalyptic type situation, it is every man for themselves. With these given situations and morals as a parent, the actions by the Father are more than justified, which truly shows what makes the Father a good character. His mission is to do this for his son, and care for him just like every Father was put on this earth