Memories from a Sinking Ship

The chapters “Memories of a sinking ship” and “The forgotten” is about a boy named Roy who lives alone with his mother because his father is dead. It’s all about Roys’ life and it’s from his point of view. In the first chapter “Memories of a sinking ship” Roy stays at his grandmother in Chicago. The first time the mother leaves Roy with the grandmother, she is out with a rich boyfriend in Mexico. The second time she leaves him she’s going to see a friend who had a house in Minnesota. Roy is angry at his mother because he’s not allowed to go with her. Roy thinks Chicago is boiling but when he arrives he decides that it’s a lie and the state is “hell”. In third chapter “The forgotten” Roy is at school but he skips school and instead he goes home to his mother. He skips school because he is angry about the way his teacher Mrs. Bluth talks to him. The themes in the story are care failure and childhood because it’s about a boy’ childhood and how the mother is falling him.

In the first chapter Roy is five years old. The way the mother communicates with him and how she raises him shows how independent he is. For example Roy asked about the mothers’ boyfriend Rafaelito Faz if he’s coming to Chicago with them. The mother reacts by saying: “Forget that one, Roy,” she said. “I don’t ever want to see that rat again.” She expects Roy to understand metaphor language that a rat is another way to say idiot. She speaks to Roy in a grown up language that a five years old never would understand. In the middle of the first chapter Roy is turn into seven when his is going to Chicago again to stay at his grandmother. Roys’ grandmother also talks to him like a grown up when Roy ask her about the new friend of his mother: “”Which one?” Roy asked. “There 10,000 lakes in Minnesota, Roy” his grandmother told him. Roy means that “which one” was one of the guys that the mother had dating before.

But his grandmother pretends to understand his question in another way. Instead she chooses to answer another question. A child like Roy wouldn’t ask about which lake the house were on that would be an older child or an adult who would ask about that. Roy is an imaginative boy like other kids in his age. In the first chapter he’s very fascinated and excited about all the rats there were climbing up the wall in his grandmothers’ house. Fortunately the mother doesn’t care about his fascination of the rats: “Not all the rats are in Chicago, Roy” she said. “They got’em in Minnesota, too.” A good mother would be very excited about the rats that her child was fascinated by. She should sound more happy and interested about it and ask into it. A seven years old boy doesn’t want to hear the reality about the rats just like he doesn’t want to hear that Santa Claus doesn’t exist. Roy has respect for his mother but he’s also afraid of her. When his mother returned from Acapulco he is afraid to tell her the trough about that he is angry: “Roy did not tell his mother that he was angry at her for dropping him off in hell.”

The reason why his afraid to tell her the through is because he’s afraid of being left in “hell” again. In the third chapter when Roy skips the school the mother try to confront him by using a metaphor: “Lana Turner wore one in The Postman Always Ring Twice. Do you remember that movie, Roy?” The mother refers to an adult film which a seven years old boy wouldn’t never understand and remember. Roy responds that he doesn’t remember the movie but the mother keep going in the same direction: “Thanks to a tricky lawyer, at first they get away with the murder, but then they slip up.” The mother wants Roy to admit that he skips school by using a metaphor. Off course he doesn’t get the point because of his age. After the mother waited a minute she decided to give up and go for shopping.

When she is going out for shopping she leaves Roy by himself. It also shows that she depends on him to be older than he is and take responsibility. Before she went shopping she tries to be a good mother by offers him a delicious meal. It’s unusual that a mother let her son walks home alone every day. The text doesn’t say anything about that he walks home alone every day. The fact that the mother doesn’t responds shows that it’s normal: “I thought you were at school. It’s only a little after ten. “They let us out early today, he said… What’s on?” Then the mother talks about which film she is watching and she doesn’t mention that he can’t walk home alone. I will say that a good mother would offers to pick up her boy or meet him half way. In both chapters the mother is presented as a person who isn’t solicitous to her child.

In the first chapter she seems to be careless because she leaves her child in Chicago. The text describes that she leaves Roy because she want to meet a boyfriend in Mexico. She only got a clipped from a magazine and that seems unconvincing. The reason why she leaves him could be that her husband just died and now she wants to be alone so she can move on. In the begging we don’t know anything about her husbands’ dead. Then in the end we get to know about his dead when Roy is talking to a friend. In the third chapter the mother has become more solicitous. It could be because of the time that had passed since her husband died and now she’s moving on. The two years made her to a better mother but she still expects Roy to be more independent.

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[ 1 ]. “Memories from a sinking ship” p. 3 line 6-7
[ 2 ]. ”Memories from a sinking ship” p.3 line 12-14
[ 3 ]. ”Memories from a sinking ship” p. 4 line 21-22
[ 4 ]. “Memories from a sinking ship” p. 3 line 1-3
[ 5 ]. ”The Forgotten” p. 7 line 10-12
[ 6 ]. ”The Forgotten” p. 7 line 16-17
[ 7 ]. ”The Forgotten” p. 7 line 7-10