Like Father, Like Son

This post focuses on the importance of a father figure in various character’s lives and how their lives are different depending on how they were brought up.

How important is a father figure?

Through reading various texts such as Station Eleven, Hamlet, and Death of a Salesman, the importance of a father figure is made apparent. When reading these three books, it is easy to see how important a father figure could be in a person’s life and how different the outcomes of different situations are.

At the end of Station Eleven, we find out that the Prophet was Tyler, Arthur Leander’s son. Seeing as Arthur and Elizabeth ended up divorced and Elizabeth moved to Jerusalem, Tyler grew up without a father figure. Although he got calls from Arthur, it wouldn’t have been the same as having the person living with you everyday. Along with that, Tyler was very young when Arthur died and the flu came, and because of this, much of his life was without a father figure. It is probably due to Tyler’s lack of a father figure that eventually leads to him being the cult leader we saw him as. Since he didn’t have someone to look up to and only had the Bible to read, this was the way he grew up.

In Hamlet, his father was the King of Denmark meaning Hamlet should have had a very lavish upbringing. Since they had such a glorious lifestyle, it might have been this lifestyle that leads to Hamlet being so overdramatic. With Old King Hamlet being King and everything, it leads Hamlet to hold him on this very high pedestal. His father was always someone he looked up to very much. Eventually, with Old Hamlet’s murder, and still being dramatic, he sets out on a revenge quest and tries waiting for the perfect opportunity to kill his uncle. With the sudden absence of his father figure comes a sudden change in Hamlet’s attitude as well.

In Death of a Salesman, Willy raised his sons to think that they were the best and that they would always be on top. This causes both sons to constantly want to prove themselves to their father. Willy favoured Biff which made him somewhat egotistical, and it also made Happy want to constantly try harder and harder for that attention. In the future, Biff ended up having troubles holding a job because of that inflated ego, and Happy was still trying to follow in his father’s footsteps to prove something to him. After Willy’s death, Biff realizes that he isn’t meant for the type of life Willy thought they had. But Happy on the other hand decided that he still wanted to prove himself to his father, even when he was no longer around.

With these three texts, it is clear to see just how important a proper father figure is to a family. All of the characters discussed had very different upbringings and so it’s no surprise that further down their lives they ended up the way they did.