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“The boat” by Alistair MacLeod

The Boat is a story about a boy who dearly loves his father but doesn’t seem to appreciate his way of life. The author has portrayed the narrator’s father as a man who is unkempt, disorderly and distant from his own family. In addition, the father sometimes has an uncontrolled temper towards the narrator’s mother. The narrator’s mother ideologies towards his father’s attitude towards the sea, education and books differed.  In most of the father’s life, he had spent doing things that he never loved as he lacked opportunities of indulging in education, books of the sea. He was instead a fisherman who was not happy with the dangers that came with fishing. He kept wishing that he had an education that would have guaranteed his family as well as him a better lifestyle. Despite the fact the narrator loves the sea just as his father; he instead immerses himself in the family’s business.

 The theme of respect has been depicted by the relationship between the father and son. The narrator respected the father, and he decided to follow his father’s advice to strive for a better education. Later on in his life as a university professor, he read a lot of books while smoking a lot of cigarettes. However, the irony is that he was not feeling completely fulfilled as he felt unhappy with his life just as his father had. Irony is one theme that has been successfully depicted in the boat story. This is because of the fact that the narrator failed to appreciate the kind of lifestyle that his father demonstrated as a result of desperation or despair. As the story unfolds, he turns to be like his own father as he ended up not appreciating the life that he was leading.

The theme of despair and misery has been symbolized by the boat that chains the father in the activity of fishing. It is important to understand that the father lacked educational opportunities that would have bailed him from that line of work. Therefore, he was deeply imprisoned in the boat as he could not have a chance of going out and doing the things that he loved or desired in his life. The boat here was used by the author to bring a deeper sense to the reader. It was obvious that the narrator’s father was doing fishing and living a life that pleased his wife but made him miserable. This is instead of loving himself first and doing all the things that made him happy first.