Peterson

The outer characterization of Peterson, the father from “Logjam” by Ron Wallace, tells us that he has been married to his wife Christine for 20 years and they have two daughters togethe…

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Inner characterization

Peterson’s inner characterization is constructed by revealing his perspective on his wife and their relationship as well as through his relationship with his daughters.

Throughout the short story, Peterson victimizes himself in relation to his wife, something which is suggested by the first line in the story— “It wasn’t his fault.” (l. 1)—referring to the fact that his wife is dissatisfied with the weather.

Although he appreciates the fact that, thanks to his wife, he and the family had the opportunity of seeing many places and having many adventures in their holidays, he dislikes his wife controlling everything:

If she hadn’t pushed them over the years to go backpacking in the Rockies, rafting on the Colorado, tramping through the jungles of Yucatan, and now driving through New England and Canada, they would never have left Wisconsin at all. (ll. 27-29)

Although he tries to avoid open conflict with Christine, talking nicely to her and claiming that he wants to camp in a tent like she planned, it is clear that he would have liked his holiday to be different: “He would have preferred to sit on the beach or leisurely beachcomb, or spend a day poking around the Provincetown or Bar Harbor shops. But this was Christine’s trip, and he was determined to be agreeable.” (ll. 25-26)

Peterson knows that, for Christine and him, talking kindly to each other is a disguise for their frustrations: “Whenever they were really angry or irritated, they would kill each other with kindness. It made it increasingly difficult really to be nice, when niceness itself was a weapon.” (ll. 37-39). This suggests that his frustrat…