Theme and message

Parent-child relationships

The main theme of the short story “The Castle” by Chloë Heuch is the relationship between parents and children. This is seen especially in the relationship between the narrator and her eldest son Osian.

There are hints that the relationship between the narrator and Osian used to be good before the narrator’s divorce from Osian’s father. Since then, Osian has become closed off, refusing to share his thoughts with the narrator and hardly talking to her. During their visit to the castle, before they go to see the falconry display, Osian keeps his earphones on and mostly seems to ignore the narrator.

This behavior hurts the narrator deeply, and she keeps trying to connect with Osian and have him interact with her. She tries to find a reason for Osian’s complete disinterest in everything and his unwillingness to communicate with her:

I wondered if this new Osian would have appeared anyway to replace my lovely, sweet boy. If he was just the teenage version and that the changes I saw in him were inevitable. He’d be thirteen soon. Everyone kept telling me ki...