Dalton Trumbo (recipient of the best name ever)'s excerpt

The young man and his father have come to a turning point in their relationship, a tense tone is created by the author through his use of short, simple sentences and lack of commas, mirroring the internal struggle of the boy. Trumbo does not use one comma throughout the entire excerpt, this syntactical choice creates tense and nervous feeling, paralleling the boy's sentiments towards a changing relationship with his father. At the beginning of the excerpt there are many lines spent specifically describing small details about their camping trip, demonstrating how important and familiar it is with both the father and son. The son's wish to go fishing with another boy is something completely new which he fears will disturb a routine that has lasted for many years. The speaker states the boy, "knew that it was an ending and a beginning" (25-26). The boy knows that this situation is bittersweet and he is afraid of his father's response. There is a clear lack of communication between the father and son. Little words are exchanged when the father hears out his son's request. However, the father lets the son take his extremely special fishing rod, signifying an acceptance towards their changing relationship: "His father's rod was a very valuable one. It was perhaps the only extravagance his father had in his whole life" (44-46). The father gives up this prized possession as a sign of respect and acceptance for his son's growth, although it does hurt him that he is forced to watch his son move on.