101 Module #2-Reading and Writing Assignment Language Essay

Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Course
Date
101 Module #2-Reading and Writing Assignment
“Father and Son” by Hughes is one of the most tragic narratives that entails a plot that uses flashbacks as opposed to direct action of the play. Arguably, the narrator of the short story reveals details that result in a complex characterization. In the performance, the author presents Norwood, one of the characters, as psychologically torn. The figure is reluctant to accept paternity in public and develops more interest in his son, Robert. Characters can develop sexual relationships with each other in a short story. The narrator of “Father and Son” reveals a sexual relationship between Norwood and Cora Lewis. Robert and Sallie Lewis are among the children of Cora and Norwood, who portrays similarities and variations in their character.
According to the narrator, Robert has a unique adaptation to racial boundaries as a defiant young character. In the first act, he uses his father’s ford without asking for permission. In the play, ford represents liberation and power as an emblem of machine power. Robert challenges a plantation order after he sasses Miss Gray over the radio tubes box that got damaged in the shipment (Hughes 5. 9). Therefore, he violates the unwritten behavior codes for black males. Arguably, Norwood is troubled by the weird character of his son Robert. The rules of Southern race relations must have distorted Robert’s character, which fails to accord the Mulattoes a higher social status.
Besides, Robert criticizes the dominance of Norwood and Higgins. He resists customary limitations and demands for recognition of his rights as the son to Norwood. Equally, the character resists a treatment as a second-class citizen in Higgin’s store while identifying himself as an heir of Norwood’s properties. However, his father refers to him as a “black ape.” The father perceives the defiance of Robert as a foolish move for claiming to be a white. On the contrary, Robert sees himself as an African American elite, who changed his vision after exposure to the blacks from other areas of the country. For that reason, the father wishes that unwritten codes would remodel Robert.
Robert is a cocky and angry young man, who gets back to his hometown for the summer after attending school. Following his return, the character criticizes the sensitive social conventions in the hometown. For instance, he drives his father’s ford without permission and sasses an employee at a post office. Similarly, Robert ignores the warnings of his neighbors/ family members, refuses to work on the fields, and corrects white people (Hughes 7. 12). Therefore, the character could be naughty as compared to his siblings and neighbors. Robert, as the main character, has a negative attitude towards the social-cultural practices in his hometown, which results in conflict with his father.
The character violates front door taboo to symbolize his resistance and refusal to accept lower status associated with color. Notably, Robert is defiant towards the language of Mulattoes. In the play, he reacts to his mother’s command that he can speak as a person of color with anger. Despite the e...