Love in Silence

Love in Silence    
      “Lunch with My Daughter,” by John Biguenet, is a story describes an awkward and situation of a father, Stan, with a teenager daughter, Frannie, who is not aware that he is her father and thinks he is really a family friend. The mother of his daughter, Megan, uses to have a romantic relationship with Stan. The relationship doesn’t last long and later on she gets married to another man whose name is Joe. The three of them have formed a family and the daughter has mistaken Joe as her father. In the story, Stan urges to have a normal, father-daughter relationship with Fannie. He wants to protect tries to protect Frannie by telling her not to get too close to boys. In the mean time, he comforts her while she expresses her problems with her parents. After being told by Frannie that her parents are going through a divorce, Stan imagines himself replacing Joe and being a part of the family. Soon he steps out of his imagination and decides to keep the secret from Frannie. Sometimes it’s better to hide the truth and keep someone we love from knowing things that may hurt them more.
    The elements in this story have produced deeper meanings and help us gain understanding of the author’s message. The story is set in a French restaurant somewhere in the United States. A specific time period is not given. However, the descriptions in the story indicate that it happens in the late 20th century or more recently. The story is narrative by Stan, the main character in first persona. Frannie, Megan and Joe are considered to be minor characters as they don’t appeal to have experienced changes in personalities from the beginning to the end. The story begins with an obvious exposition by introducing characters and setting. It is mostly composed by dialogues happen between Stan and Frannie while they are eating. The part of the story where Stan recalls the old days with Megan gets perplexing because it’s uneasy to identify it as a flashback or not. At the... [continues]

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