Analyse af 'A Sunday Afternoon' af John Altman

”No, no, little boy.” She shook her finger at him, her eyes searching for the child’s mother or nurse. “We mustn’t throw sand” (l. 21) this sentence is a main quote in the story: “A Sunday afternoon” written by John Altman and published in 1993. The text proposes a question on how an adult should act, and how, in our modern society, we learn that we should discuss and deal with troubles like an adult. This is what we as a reader see in the text, a desperate mother who starts out as an adult but becomes more of a child herself.

David, Wilson and the mother, is a happy little American family in the city. David is a quite innocent boy, who mostly just plays in the sand or stays quiet. He is a great example of a child that awaits and observes what his mom or dad does. “David looked up at his mother…” (l.30) It is also from this example, that we can see a difference or a development for David. In the beginning of the story, he is quite silent and actually very well behaved. However after the incident with the mother and the other boy’s father, he has changed and is now screaming and crying: “I don’t want to go home…” (l.78) This is the first time, I thought of David as a small child. Wilson however seems to be an intelligent man, who keeps calm even though the situation is rather unpleasant. He acts more like an adult in the beginning of the story, but loses his temper in the end and might also act a little bit childish and almost alludes that his wife are not capable to raise their child: “If you can’t discipline this child…” (l.116) The mother also changes a lot during the story, she gives us a kind of emotional rollercoaster, however as a reader you cannot help to feel that she is sort of desperate for attention from her husband. She seems to be a loving and caring mother, but it also feels as if she herself lacks some love. Even in the end, we get the feeling that she is unsatisfied and tired of Wilson, and says: “You and who else?” (l.119) This quote gives the reader the feeling that she no longer wants to support her husband. The father of the boy throwing sand is starting out being the childish one, and kind of allowing the other characters to do so as well. Somehow I can’t help the feeling, that the family in this story somehow acts all cocky and unintentionally irritates the father, like when he says: “Throw all you want. This here is a public sandbox.” (l. 44)