CARL NIXON SHORT STORIES FISH N CHIP SHOP SONG (2006)
MY FATHER RUNNING WITH A DEAD BOY, WEIGHT, THE APPLE OF HIS EYE
Loneliness
Apple
Coutts – wife left, no children, works a
lot; Eyelash and John gone, works a lot.
“You will probably see him playing a
game … he will carefully hide a piece of
wooden fruit” (p 31)
Weight
The father – son growing distant from
him, no sense of mother/wife “he stood
alone in the darkness with only the light
from the naked bulb”
Eyelash – abandoned by Lars and her
parents; abandoned by Lars again and
John grown up “Eyelash was not
unhappy … nor was she completely
happy” (p 30)
Men with problems
Coutts - “had no children”, wife left,
“unusually short”, works in fruit shop.
Regret at end -“He thought she was
making a mistake but did not say so” –
emotional distance
Lars – not problems to him but other
people, “quick to criticise”, emotional
distance from E
New life/change
Eyelash and John’s arrival - stayed for
13 years
Running
The son – felt distant from his father his
whole life because he dad was an older
dad “by the time I was 10 my father was
already and old man”, sees his father –
“for a moment I think he is my father” …
“I see a young man” No he’s learning
about his father makes the son realise
he knew him even less than he thought
he did – death, no second chance to get
to know his dad
Father – getting older, son is growing up, Father/son – lack of connection btwn
losing his physical power over his son,
them – emotional distances
being surpassed physically by son “his
son was looking down at him”
Father – did not deal with boy’s death –
not forgiving of self means he’s stuck
Son – not communicating with father
there in the past w the guilt and loss and
death
Emotional distances
Father being surpassed physically by son
“his son was looking down at him”
Son – new understanding of father, the
son sees his father w new eyes
Weights
Father/son – lack of connection btwn
them
Eyelash and John’s departure w Lars
Father/Son
relationships
Coutts and John – “I believe he still calls
the small man he thinks of as his father
regularly”
Outward
appearances
Coutts – “unusually short … misleading
for me to refer to him as a dwarf … his
body was as lean as a nine-year-olds”
Eyelash - “her body was long and thin,
more like an elongated vegetable – a
runner bean perhaps …”
Loss
Coutts – the wife, the no children,
Eyelash and John going
Father – aging, muscles/strength “he felt
his arms begin to shake, his muscles
began to shiver and spasm” “Think I just
pulled a muscle”
Son – growing strength “the son’s chest
was taut and straining”
Physical pain represents emotional
Loss of physical power
Loss of son wanting to be like his dad
Eyelash – abandoned by Lars, leaves
Coutts
Father has always been seen as an old
man – son didn’t know of father’s
strength?
Loss of emotional connection btwn
them
Death x 2
Loss of friendship – Blackie and the
father
Father loses his youth at the point he
could not save the boy – he becomes
the old man at that point, helping the
boy’s mother, etc
Son loses out because the father is
trapped in the past
Adaptation – cure
of unhappiness?
Coutts – work becomes his thing, falls
into the family thing w E and J
Eyelash – re-abandoned by Lars, but fills
the void w her “day-care centre for
unwed mothers”
Slice of Life – time “a
segment of actual life
experience” Merriam
Webster
Symbolic Settings w
strong visual imagery
Y – 13+ years, told quickly, main detail
was when C met E
Fruit Shop – matches C’s
moods/personality
Father does not accept/adapt to
changing situation, so is unhappy. It’s
been happening for a while, has not
seen it/does not want to see it/ “making
half recognised excuses not to come out
to the garage” – avoiding – so it’s a
shock when the son is stronger
Y – 20 mins one night
Father does not adapt, he’s
unhappy/sad; Son gains an
understanding of his father at the
funeral so this brings him an
appreciation of his father’s
situation/reason for being the way he
was
Y – 20 mins at the funeral
Garage
Church = physically cold to match the
lack of knowing of the son has for the
Cliff – E’s almost suicide
Wharf when they leave – the sadness
Pear Tree
father – matches their relationship
Weights
Physical description of
men
Coutts – main character
Naked bulb/lack of light
Son growing up to be like father – rugby,
weights, clothing, but now he is growing
into his own man
Blackie – a lot like the father “same
shade of blue as my father’s”, only
knows the father thru Blackie, so looking
for father in Blackie
Easy to read – story
makes complex
characters and their
emotions accessible respect for characters
Nostalgia Reminiscing
Y – empathy, pity/sympathy
Physical size - that’s what matters “in a
few years he had gone from being tall
and skinny to simply big, solid and still
growing”
Y – empathy for both, sympathy/pity?
All
All
All incl the mother of the boy/war
widow only son
Coutts – playing with the apple
Eyelash – says things C said to here
John – “ordered all the fruit and
vegetables himself”
Yes – the incident, what was not known
Humour
Yes – from descriptions
When son was younger, this was a
positive experience, something they did
together, something they had in
common – it was good, now it’s a harsh
acceptance of reality
No
Structure – left in the
same place
Coutts – back in the shop, back to his
routine, alone
Eyelash – abandoned again
Father – yes, near the tree
Father back in the same place
(Quick) Turning Points
– realisation, back
where they started but
different have new
understanding of
“I’ll be sorry to see you go” – Coutts to E
Son is now physically stronger than his
father
“yes … I suppose he was” C to E, and
then E to the girls she worked with.
“Eyelash was not unhappy … nor was
she completely happy” (p 30)
Father – young man. Strong
Y - empathy for both, sympathy/pity?
No
Plot/physically – at the funeral
New understanding of father
self/situation, grown
from the situation –
new knowledge
Narrative
Narrative style – like we have asked a
question and now they are telling us the
whole story to answer the question –
speaks directly to the reader “if you like
details” … “I will tell you now …”
Third person - omniscient
1st person
Symbols
Apple, Settings
Settings, Weights, Tree
Realism
No happy ever after ending – not love
story – bittersweet – happy memories
No happy ever after ending
Dead boy – the point the father became
and old man, detatched from human
relationships?
No happy ever after ending - happy
memories