A Special Bond

She was becoming fragile and that mad her melancholy. She doesn't want to have to depend on her son or anyone else, she wants to be independent. These examples plus all the other show Fenstad's concern for his mother's well being.
             Love was one of the issues that they had different opinions about. Fenstad's mother found out about his new girlfriend and does not understand why he did not just stay with his ex-girlfriend Eleanor. She says, "Why does your generation always have to find the right person? Why can't you just learn to live with the wrong person? Sooner or later everyone's wrong." (Paragraph 8). She did not think that love was the most important thing and wanted his to understand that. However, Fenstad realizes that his relationship wit Eleanor is in the past. Its put best when is its described as "Over and done with, gone and gone."(Paragraph 9). Fenstad does not see love the same way his mother does.
             Fenstad realizes his mother's old age is bothering her and wants to do all he can to make her feel better. He invited her to his composition class and when she says, "I'm too old, he responds with, "You'll fit right in."(Paragraph 15). He is trying his hardest to motivate his mother on the things she can do by making her feel comfortable. During the class, when one of the students said divorce was unique and Fenstad disagreed he saw, "In his mother's face for a split second was the history of her compassionate, ambivalent attention towards him."(Paragraph 48). He enjoyed his seeing his mother give him all her attention and he gave her the same. The lack of respect his other students were showing him bothered her. The others were not giving Fenstad the attention they should have, showing signs of boredom. His mother showed her response about the class by saying, "That wasn't logic. Those are just rhetorical tactics. It's filler and drudgery." (Paragraph 58). She does not think that what he was teaching was logic, she believe it is politics.