Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Letting Go

So far, a good portion of this book focuses on the relationship between St. Peter and his daughters, and his subtle regret on seeing them grow up. He constantly mentions how he misses them being little girls and his constant inability to understand their decisiosn and his fear of seeing them become independent and not fulfill the wishes that he has for them. In St. Peter, I am able to see much of my own dad in this way. My dad, similar to St. Peter, is very passive in his way of showing affection. While my mom is very active in showing her emotions, kind of like Mrs. St. Peter, it is harder to read my father. My mom cries every time I leave to go back to school, and my dad just smiles and kisses me on the cheek before leaving me at the airport door, which always makes me assume that my dad is much more adjusted to seeing me go and grow up than my mom is.

However, as we were talking about in class on Tuesday, we are almost too young to be able to put ourselves in our parents' perspective. While we are letting go of our youth, to some degree, in order to embrace our independence, it is also our parents that have to let go of our youth and our constant dependence in order to let us grow into the people we will become. With that, I am able to see that deep down, my dad might not be as collected as he seems to be. As hard as it initially may be for us as kids to leave the comforts of home and go somewhere completely new and foreign, Cather depicts the burden of children growing up falling more on the parents, as it is hard to accept the fact that after so many years of relying on you, they don't need you anymore. I guess my dad, like St. Peter, will always think of me as daddy's little girl.

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