Analyse af novellen 'The Arena'

The story is about a man who is stuck in his past. Throughout the short story he reflects on his previous life, where he was married to a woman, with whom he had a son. The son had tragically died, at a young age. Now when he has remarried and has a new son, he thinks about his dead son all the time, and I affect his parenthood. The only thing we get to know about his new wife is, that she reminds him of his old wife. His new son is in the teen age when the story is told. We know that he is playing lacrosse, and that he has a child’s mind. The story shows a certain distance towards the son, his name is never mentioned. Maybe the man has a hard time getting attached to the son, because of what had happened in the past. The main character wants to be a good father, but he is very absent. Because of his absence he has a bad conscience, he wants to live up to the sons expectations. In proportion to his living son, we get to know the deceased sons name. The fact that we know his name, shows us that he has a central role in the short story. The father is feeling guilty of his sons death, although we are not told that he caused the accident in which he died. The father keeps reliving the situation when he sees police cars.