A Straight Bat
A Straight Bat
Parents often have ideal ways they want their children to be; sometimes they don’t give them any freedom to choose. “A Straight Bat”, written by Roger Holt, is a short story about George who wants his son to become a great cricket player just like him even though his son, Timothy, doesn’t want to and wants to play the violin. This reading will be related to the dominant reading where readers sympathise with the son and see the father as an overbearing and oppressive man. This reading focuses on how the father forces his son to live under his shadow and how it’s represented through the actions and words of the characters.
George is seen as a dominant figure who expects his son to live under his shadow. This is demonstrated through the speech of George. Before Timothy goes to his boarding school George gives him a cricket bat as a present. “What do you say?” This shows us how controlling he is towards his son. George also reminds him that he must become a good cricket player. “You must score lots of runs with it, Timothy… Hundreds of them” He expects his son to love cricket and to become a star just like he was when he was at the same school. He doesn’t give his son any freedom to do what he wants to “You have a tradition to keep up. Your father still holds the record for the quickest century” he expects his son to be just like him. Through the speech of George we can see that George expects too much from his son and tries to control how his son lives.
We sympathise with Timothy and see him as a weak character that is suppressed by his father. This can be seen in the speech and the actions of Timothy. After receiving the cricket bat Timothy isn’t very excited about it and wasn’t too interested. His father says “What do you say?” and he replies with “Thank you, Daddy” as if he was being controlled by his father. “Timothy stared at the wall in front of him and thought of the violins.” He is fascinated by violins and isn’t very interested in playing
Parents often have ideal ways they want their children to be; sometimes they don’t give them any freedom to choose. “A Straight Bat”, written by Roger Holt, is a short story about George who wants his son to become a great cricket player just like him even though his son, Timothy, doesn’t want to and wants to play the violin. This reading will be related to the dominant reading where readers sympathise with the son and see the father as an overbearing and oppressive man. This reading focuses on how the father forces his son to live under his shadow and how it’s represented through the actions and words of the characters.
George is seen as a dominant figure who expects his son to live under his shadow. This is demonstrated through the speech of George. Before Timothy goes to his boarding school George gives him a cricket bat as a present. “What do you say?” This shows us how controlling he is towards his son. George also reminds him that he must become a good cricket player. “You must score lots of runs with it, Timothy… Hundreds of them” He expects his son to love cricket and to become a star just like he was when he was at the same school. He doesn’t give his son any freedom to do what he wants to “You have a tradition to keep up. Your father still holds the record for the quickest century” he expects his son to be just like him. Through the speech of George we can see that George expects too much from his son and tries to control how his son lives.
We sympathise with Timothy and see him as a weak character that is suppressed by his father. This can be seen in the speech and the actions of Timothy. After receiving the cricket bat Timothy isn’t very excited about it and wasn’t too interested. His father says “What do you say?” and he replies with “Thank you, Daddy” as if he was being controlled by his father. “Timothy stared at the wall in front of him and thought of the violins.” He is fascinated by violins and isn’t very interested in playing