The son who played the main character in Tobias Wolff's short story of "Powder," experiences some events that helps him realize and appreciate his father (1332). He goes from being an observant and sensitive kid whose parents have gone through a divorce, drawing him closer to his mother and distant to his father. Realizing perhaps why the split came about between his parents, he comes to the understanding that people need to decide for themselves who their loved ones are. The story shows how the son grows from meek and not wanting to be around his father to accepting him for who he is.
In the beginning of the story the young boy is at home listening to his father fight for the privilege of his company. He hears his mother having a discussion with his father about not letting him go on this trip with him, his father wanted to take him to Mount Baker. The boy's mother was not all accepting of it since the last time she let her son go with him his father sneaked him into a nightclub. As both parents keep going back and forth the young boy is silently listening to them argue. His mother finally agrees to let him leave and head out to the snow with the conditions being that he would be back home in time for Christmas dinner. They are in the mountains and he no longer has the desire to continue with the skiing but his father coerces him, "He was indifferent to my fretting" (1332). The son was growing impatient and frustrated, "By now I could not see the trail. There was no point in trying" but he latched himself to his father and continued the ride down the mountain (1332).
"We returned our skis and my father put chains on the Austin-Healy while I swayed from foot to foot, clapping my mittens and wishing I were home" already imagining how his dinner at home with mom would be like (1332). It is easily identifiable that the young boy has yet to change his mind about being around his father.