Relationship between the characters

In the next section, we will offer you some suggestions on how you could analyze Carys Bray’s short story “The Rescue” by focusing on the relationship between the characters in the text. 

The relationship between the main characters, the mother and the father, is influenced by their son’s problems with drugs. 

The father’s only concern is the son. All his thoughts are channeled in that direction. The mother is almost absent from his thoughts or appears only in relation to the son:

“He thought they were at rock bottom when the son stole five hundred pounds from the mother’s bank account. He thought it again when the son set fire to the house, and when the son borrowed the car and crashed it.” (ll. 25-27)

“The father doesn’t watch the news. He can’t understand why the mother bothers with it: depressing, miserable information from all over the world, brought straight to our front room by eager journalists…” (ll. 62-63)

We find out a great deal of information about the couple’s relationship whe...