Complicity
by Tim Parrish
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Next time you wanta hit my son, remember this"
Tim Parrish's Complicity is a short story that excels in telling a story by showing instead of telling. Throughout my life, my English teachers have always told me to show what is going on by describing the situation and leaving the reader to figure out what it means for himself, instead of outright explaining "this is what happens".
Parrish does this by developing a relationship between the main character's family and the family across the street, the Parks. Jeb, the main character, acts as a foil for Mr. Parks by getting in a fight with his son. Once his father catches the two of them fighting, his true colors shine. He holds Jeb back for Ricky, his son, to wail on him, striking him over and over in the stomach. It is at this point in the story where the reader is able to see the kind of man that Mr. Parks really is.
Later on in the story, Mr. Parks' wife is tied down and beaten until she is black and blue while nobody else was home in the house. When pressed, Mr. Parks is adamant that the intruder must have been an African American adolescent who came into their house and hurt his wife. However, the author drops hints that Jeb is skeptical.
I came to the conclusion that Mr. Parks was the one who hurt his wife, because of his violent nature and because of Mrs. Parks' tendency to dismiss the question whenever the topic of her being beaten was brought up. In my opinion, this story centralized around the theme of everything not being quite as it seems. Although popular opinion may dictate that an event happened one way, in reality that is not always the case.
Too much summary here. You need to begin where you ended--the idea that not everything is as it seems.
ReplyDelete