Although many people raise their children in ways that can be seen as unloving or uncaring, their intentions are usually quite the opposite. A good parent's behavior should reflect his or her feelings, as children are not mind readers. However, parents oftentimes have trouble converting their abstract feelings into concrete actions. Some parents push too hard, leaving their children discouraged instead of motivated. Franz Kafka's "Letter to His Father" shows such a parent- a father who used severity instead of compassion to ready his son for the world. Other parents are forced by their situation to leave their children in unfit conditions, and are too tired to show any physical affection. Such was the circumstance of Tillie Olsen, as she describes in "I Stand Here Ironing." .
When Franz Kafka's father was trying to ready his son for the harsh realities of the world, he was also exposing his son to what would be some of the harshest experiences of the boy's life. Kafka cites some grievances against his father, such as his father not taking into account the trials and tribulations of a child his age. To a nine-year-old, any little matter could conceivably be the end of the world, but Kafka's father expected him to behave like a small adult, taking his worst fears and hardest obstacles in his stride. .
He also mentions a particular situation in his childhood that had a lasting effect on him, in which he is thrown out onto the porch at night after whining for a glass of water. He discloses that he did not connect the incessant asking for water with being thrown out on the porch, which leads him to fear for some time that "that big man," his father, would at any second come and take him away. Instead of sitting down with the boy and talking to him about it, or at least telling the boy why he was being put onto the porch, the father disciplines him in the only way he knows how- no words, explanations, or any sign of compassion.
