Title: The Broken Globe Author: Henry Kreisel Topic: Is the father an antagonist or a victim?

Kreisel artfully establishes Solchuk as a victim of his beliefs through the manipulation of archetypal symbols. Raised under the influence of the medieval church in an isolated Ukrainian village, Solchuk grew up with the archaic values of his forefather's conditioned into his consciousness. The rigid confines of his religion were so omnipresent in his childhood that he grew to depend on the unwavering foundation of its principles. Even before Solchuk's transition into adulthood, he had irrevocably adopted the pious tradition of his forefathers as his own and thought it only natural that he would pass them on to all future descendents. Consequently, his son's refusal to accept Solchuk's personal values and preachings came as an unexpected shock. Since his religion had become the basis of his identity, Solchuk felt his son, Nick, had not only denied his religious principles, but also forsaken his own father. None of the forefathers before him had ever failed to save their offspring from Satan, so Solchuk concluded that Nick's unrighteous beahviour must be an indication of his own deficiencies. This seed of self-doubt lead him to the irrational fear that his son was raised corrupt because of the shortcomings in his own faith. Terrified that he might be succumbing to the devil that the church had conditioned him to abhor, Solchuk exhausts all his time and energy fighting off temptation and sin. To successfully block out all unrighteous influences, however, he must hide from the blasphemous ideas of the modern world. This isolation ironically eliminates any communication with his son, whom Solchuk feels he must save in order to truly affirm his faith. Unable to demonstrate his religious worth while desperately maintaining his faith, Solchuk becomes checkmated into a state of psychological torture by his own beliefs. Without any means of escaping the doomed cycle, he is forced to retreat and live in a permanent state of impotence. The powerlessness brought on by