Mom of Humor

            
             Eccentric characters provide the basis for any humor in a novel or piece of writing. In the book My Life and Hard Times by James Thurber there are many characters that are humorous and eccentric. The mom is a character that provides much of the humor throughout the book. Reading about this woman and her ideas in this book seems to put a smile on anyone's face. The first glimpse given of Mrs. Thurber is her opinion on how her husband should not sleep in the bed in the attic. She believed, " The old wooden bed would crash down on father's head and kill him." Most people do not ever think the bed would fall down and kill them. In the mind of James the reader can see that he believed his mother had absurd fears about things that most likely would not happen. James also tells about a dog he had named Muggs who would bit almost every single person that was not family. Mom would make a list of all the people who Muggs bit and would send them a box of candy for Christmas each year. Pretty soon the list grew to contain forty plus people. Readers learn the soft-sided yet humorous part of mom through this. Even though the list kept growing. Mom could never send the dog away. James" mom could also be a very ironic person, which seems to give her character a twist. James tells of a night when Mr. Thurber thought he heard weird noises in the house. He was convinced there was a ghost or some sort of monster lurking in the house. Everyone who heard Mr. Thurber's tale panicked and was filled with worry. Mom was able to reassure them and convince them that the strange noises father heard throughout the house were harmless. Her almost double personality adds to her character dimension and shows that she was ironic in a humorous way. James does an excellent job of combining humor and irony into one character. This then causes him to write a funny book filled with eccentric characters. .