THE ARENA
A – ”The Arena”
"The Arena" is a short story written by Martin Golan in 2008 and it’s about an unnamed protagonist - he’s also the narrator in the story. He is taking his son to the arena for his son to take the bus. Multiple themes are presented in this story which is the strong bond between the parents and the children, to be able to let the past go and self-awareness.
The father and son relationship takes a big role in the short story. As a parent having children - it’s important to communicate with their children. The child becomes the soul of the parent. The parent sees the child as his everything. Raising children is the central experience of life - greatest source of self-awareness - true fountain of pride and joy and most eternal bond with a partner.
The father is stuck between two lives, his current life and his earlier one. His earlier life was a big tragedy for him, losing his son wasn’t easy and then leaving his wife for that matter. While driving his son to the arena, he keeps having those flashbacks - looking into his past. Of what had happened. All those images from his past show up - and he can’t help himself but to think back. The police cars - the serene lights starts making him think back.
The arena gets mentioned many times throughout the whole story - and can symbolize the battle for the father's past and present. He's with his son, on their way to the arena - the arena can be seen as a goal for the father to overcome these thoughts of his past and concentrate about the present - to do his best for his son. The father mentions how his life with his last wife was after the loss of their child, and how it wasn’t much different than before the loss. How could it be that he and his wife could continue doing what they usually did before losing their child Willie?
“But we’d only “make love”. Does that make sense? Talking felt like “talking”, hugging felt like “hugging”. It had to do with the loss of boundaries.”
The father has lost the
"The Arena" is a short story written by Martin Golan in 2008 and it’s about an unnamed protagonist - he’s also the narrator in the story. He is taking his son to the arena for his son to take the bus. Multiple themes are presented in this story which is the strong bond between the parents and the children, to be able to let the past go and self-awareness.
The father and son relationship takes a big role in the short story. As a parent having children - it’s important to communicate with their children. The child becomes the soul of the parent. The parent sees the child as his everything. Raising children is the central experience of life - greatest source of self-awareness - true fountain of pride and joy and most eternal bond with a partner.
The father is stuck between two lives, his current life and his earlier one. His earlier life was a big tragedy for him, losing his son wasn’t easy and then leaving his wife for that matter. While driving his son to the arena, he keeps having those flashbacks - looking into his past. Of what had happened. All those images from his past show up - and he can’t help himself but to think back. The police cars - the serene lights starts making him think back.
The arena gets mentioned many times throughout the whole story - and can symbolize the battle for the father's past and present. He's with his son, on their way to the arena - the arena can be seen as a goal for the father to overcome these thoughts of his past and concentrate about the present - to do his best for his son. The father mentions how his life with his last wife was after the loss of their child, and how it wasn’t much different than before the loss. How could it be that he and his wife could continue doing what they usually did before losing their child Willie?
“But we’d only “make love”. Does that make sense? Talking felt like “talking”, hugging felt like “hugging”. It had to do with the loss of boundaries.”
The father has lost the