The Badness Within Him
Dan, Ajla, Maid, Dunja, Joanna
The Badness Within Him by Susan Hill
Theme: Male Adolescence • The restlessness of adolescence: frustration with routine and being caught in between childhood and adulthood – Col’s desire for ‘a storm’ or some kind of change to the hot, sunny weather that seemed dragging (adolescence) • aggression and violence against his family • the end of childhood • Oedipus Complex - Also allusion to Oedipus complex, where son feels rivalry with his father and siblings for his mother’s attention.
Purpose: • To reflect on Col’s rationalization of his father’s death. Clearly, there is no connection between his father’s unfortunate accident and Col’s desire for swift change. However, with his father’s death, the chance for Col to be a child is lost and with no other means of rationalizing such an irreversible event, he sees his father’s death as a punishment for his wish for change and his negative behavior within his family during adolescence. • To define ‘the badness within him’; good vs evil and the more implicitly, the position of man before traditional constructions of God - ‘prayer’ and ‘punishment’
Col saw his father drowning but was emotionally distant until the very end of the story where he cathartically weeps. He blames himself: “I am punished.” “finally he knew the power of the `Badness within him`.
“But even while he prayed he had known that there could be no answer because of `The badness within him `.
Structure:
Chronological style combined with few flashbacks in which Col remembers his childhood and family when he was younger. From the starting point of the prayer to Col’s response to his prayer after it is fulfilled – within the space of 24 hours.
Can be divided into three parts – childhood, present (before father’s death) and uncertain future (after father’s death). He thinks back on the past, were he felt good time in the summerhouse, were he felt like being apart of the
The Badness Within Him by Susan Hill
Theme: Male Adolescence • The restlessness of adolescence: frustration with routine and being caught in between childhood and adulthood – Col’s desire for ‘a storm’ or some kind of change to the hot, sunny weather that seemed dragging (adolescence) • aggression and violence against his family • the end of childhood • Oedipus Complex - Also allusion to Oedipus complex, where son feels rivalry with his father and siblings for his mother’s attention.
Purpose: • To reflect on Col’s rationalization of his father’s death. Clearly, there is no connection between his father’s unfortunate accident and Col’s desire for swift change. However, with his father’s death, the chance for Col to be a child is lost and with no other means of rationalizing such an irreversible event, he sees his father’s death as a punishment for his wish for change and his negative behavior within his family during adolescence. • To define ‘the badness within him’; good vs evil and the more implicitly, the position of man before traditional constructions of God - ‘prayer’ and ‘punishment’
Col saw his father drowning but was emotionally distant until the very end of the story where he cathartically weeps. He blames himself: “I am punished.” “finally he knew the power of the `Badness within him`.
“But even while he prayed he had known that there could be no answer because of `The badness within him `.
Structure:
Chronological style combined with few flashbacks in which Col remembers his childhood and family when he was younger. From the starting point of the prayer to Col’s response to his prayer after it is fulfilled – within the space of 24 hours.
Can be divided into three parts – childhood, present (before father’s death) and uncertain future (after father’s death). He thinks back on the past, were he felt good time in the summerhouse, were he felt like being apart of the