Father And I

            In the short story "Father and I", by Par Lagerkvist, a boy and his father take a walk in the woods on a Sunday afternoon. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and a familiar train drives by. The father waves and the driver waves back. Everything is perfect. Then it begins to get dark. Things are changing and nothing looks the same. The boy is frightened, but the father tells the boy he shouldn't be. Out of nowhere, a dark and mysterious train comes close to hitting them both. The father points out that it is strange to see a train like that. The boy starts to realize that he is different from his father and that his whole life is going to be frightening.
             When it starts to get dark, the boy senses his own vulnerability in the world. The boy is thinking that the dark is making the world come alive. "It is getting darker and darker, and the trees were so queer. They stood and listened for the sound of footsteps, as they didn't know who we were. It was roaring down underneath us as if it wanted to swallow us up, as the ground seem to open under us." This shows that he is frightened.
             Right after the father told the boy he shouldn't be frightened, the boy realizes his father cannot always protect him. "I felt so lonely, so abandoned. It was queer that it was only me that was frightened, not Daddy. It was queer that we didn't feel the same about it. And it was queerer still that what he said didn't help, didn't stop me being frightened." This shows that the boy can't always depend on his father and he will need to make his own secure world.
             The boy learns that he must be in charge of his own safety and security in the world. " It was all the fear which would come to me, all the unknown; all that Daddy didn't know about, and couldn't save me from. That is how the world would be for me, and the strange life I would live." This shows that the boy is realizing that his whole life is changing and that he will have to control his life from now on.