Comparative Literary Analysis
This is the life I’ve been given, and I am not sorry for the life I’ve lived. The short stories Knotted and Inch Off the Ground in the novel, Where the Wind Can Find It by Ben Nickol, examine the lives of two men who lie to themselves in order to mask their true displeasure with the lives they lived and are currently living. These two men who were born with a life full of opportunity and admiration, have settled for a life where they feel comfortable and are able to mask their true feelings. Leslie and the unnamed son of a drunk both portray their lives as honest and raw, but through their raw honestly, they are lying to themselves and everyone around them. Lying holds these men back from reaching their full…show more content… When we lie about the things and people we love, we make paint a perfect image that everything is ok, but once the canvas is ripped open, the pain and sadness comes flowing out of it. Although it is easy to love someone or something, it can be very difficult to express those vulnerable feelings, with fear that you will be rejected. For the men in Knotted and An Inch Off the Ground, they feared their love because they knew that it could reject them, leaving them confused and uncomfortable. Therefore, they have to lie about their love in order to make themselves feel content with their lives. “The locust is drawn in winter, wherever it is. The branches extend at sharp angle, each turn a joint, until a spear is reached, like lightning. It’s a bouquet of dark lighting” (Nickol 36). Leslie’s life is similar to that of the locust, each branch of the locust leads to a new event, but they eventually all have a stopping point in the tree. Leslie dedicated his entire life to the love of his life, golf. He went through the motions in order to have a shot at the PGA, but every path he went down, he lied because he feared he wasn’t good enough or wouldn’t make the cut, he feared he would be rejected from the game he loved. Each time he feared rejection he was rejected, he attracted this failure because the failure meant he didn’t have to step out of his comfort zone. Therefore, when he didn’t make the cut for the PGA he moved to…show more content… It was easier to have a hidden love for his father and hid the pain that was surrounding him. The pain felt by the son stemmed from love and he had to express his pain in order to recognize the love that was buried deep below all the anger and sadness. When he speaks badly about his father and curses his name, he is really proclaiming his love through anger and frustration. “Fuck your dad, he said. Fuck my dad, yeah. Fuck your dad. Fuck dads. Me and homeboy, we’ve got an announcement. From this hour forth, until eternity, dads are fucked” (Nickol 87). The vulgar use of language is a complete lie, it’s a mask hiding the love that they have for their fathers, but it is simpler to be flat out angry, than to be angry because of love. For the unnamed man he channels his love into anger and screams from the top of his lungs “fuck dads”, but what he is trying to say is fuck dad, he has made me love him when all I want to do is be angry at him. The relationship between love and anger is an honest feeling for the unnamed man and leaves him with the choice of whether to let love outweigh anger, which would allow a relationship to form between father and son.
Lying is the root of all unhappiness and causes damage within a relationship. Lying roots from fear and love, two emotions that make up the human brain. When we love something
