Analyse af Elizabeth Baines' 'Compass and Torch'

Longing for DadnessAn essay on the short story, ”Compass and Torch”, by Elizabeth Baines.No one can replace a mother and father. But when parents split up, the child is often emotionally torn between two people who are incredibly important, and it will do its best to keep both sides happy and at peace. This becomes clear in Elizabeth Baines' short story, “Compass and Torch” in which a little boy is longing for the Dad that has practically stepped out of his life after the parents' separation. This story of a father and son on a camping trip is told by an omniscient third person narrator who mostly takes the point of view of the boy (“he thought he couldn't bear this: that this moment which he had looked forward to, longed for, as his moment of joy, was a moment of sadness for her”, (p. 4, ll. 37-40)). This point of view makes the reader more aware of how much the little boy longs for his father's attention and tries to cope with life in a disrupted family where the parents don't get along. The 8-year-old boy lives with his mother and her new boyfriend, Jim. His parents have split up and when the short story begins, it has been 4 months since the boy has last seen his father. He is a very sensitive little boy who takes in a lot more than his parents are aware of. He overhears his mother talking to Jim in a condescending way about his father and feels like he needs to protect his father and make her stop.