Characterizations
The main characters in the short story are Norton, the father, and Laura, his daughter. In this section, we are going to characterize them both. …
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Norton
The reader gets to know Norton through both direct and indirect characterization. The direct characterization gives away the fact that Norton is a strong man who used to be extremely rich. He was a “successful venture capitalist” (l. 40), but poor decisions have sent him to prison for tax evasion. He had to spend a “nine-month stint for tax evasion at a federal prison in Milan, Michigan” (l. 45) and, according to him, this experience has changed him for the better. He is no longer the “insanely busy and driven man” (l. 78) he was before, and he wishes his daughter to acknowledge the change.
We also get to know that he used to live in Montana with his family before the divorce, a place that is the source of fond memories he has with his daughter. “It’d be nice to go trout fishing. We used to go trout fishing” (l. 19), he says, but Laura dismisses the memory. According to her, the fishing experience happened only “five times” (l. 20), her reply making the reader ask himself if Norton is not, in fact, exaggerating.
Exaggeration is a very important element in Norton’s characterization. He tends to amplify things every moment he interacts with his daughter. His first exaggeration is related to the presence of Air Force cadets in the bistro where they are having lunch. He implies that their behavior towards girls is inappropriate, and he expresses his concern, only to be dismissed by Laura, who does not think about a relationship with them. Norton is very protective with his daughter when it comes to men, and he is particularly offended when the waiter acts like Norton is on a romantic encounter, not on a lunch date with his dau…
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Laura
A 21-year-old college student, Laura has lost her connection to her father immediately after graduation and Norton does not know how to adapt to the change. Laura’s behavior is over-analyzed by her father, who has the tendency to interpret her every gesture as being focused against him:
“At the bistro, her eyes swept the room, expressing her wish to be elsewhere” (l. 25)
He was “increasingly nervous as he caught h…
