- Exposition Quote: “My son is breaking my heart. It is already broken” (MacLeaverty, 166)
Explanation: The statement is a paradoxical realization that disappointment can get even worse. This quote introduces the internal conflict that the father has with his need to continue loving his son even though he is profoundly disappointed with him. It illustrates that the relationship between the father and son is distant and damaged. It also emphasizes the pain the father feels for his son because he is unable to reach him through normal means of communication. It also suggests that even though he is brokenhearted by what the son has become and the way he has wasted his life, there is still room for more disappointment.
- Rising Action: “Son, you are living on borrowed time.” (MacLeaverty, 167)
Explanation: The father is saying that the son’s reckless lifestyle is doomed and it foreshadows a likely tragedy. The son lives dangerously and so each day he stays alive he is under risk of being killed, Belfast is a very dangerous place and the son is obviously involved in a violent resistance in one form or another. The father is wise enough to know, probably as a long term Belfast resident, that when you live by the sword you are likely to die by it. We feel as readers that something tragic is likely to happen.
- Rising Action: “The door swings open and he pushes a hand-gun beneath the pillow.” (MacLeaverty, 169)
Explanation: This quote builds up to the climax because it is the moment that the reader realizes that the boy is involved with some sort of violent resistance and wants to hide it from his father. The father obviously disapproves of the son’t involvement in violent resistance and the significance of the son hiding the gun is that this may be a key source of their estrangement. The father must disapprove of violence out of concern for his safety but the violence may be the only source of inspiration for the son. Thus this quote both explains what the son is involved with and partly foreshadows a violent escalation
- Rising action: “My son with friends. Talking. What he does not do with me” (MacLeaverty, 169)
Explanation: It builds suspense because it underscores the son’s involvement and single-minded devotion to his violent cause and that the father is unable to influence him in the same way his friends can. It also highlights their estrangement. The son and father have strained communication and the father laments that they are unable to connect with each other with words. He feels it is unfair that he can talk so freely with his friends and not him. They may talk but not in the way they used to and not in the easy manner that he does so with his friends.
- Climax quote: “There is a Bang. A dish-cloth drops from my hand and I run to the kitchen door” (MacLeaverty 169).
Explanation: This is the moment where all the buildup of conflict officially comes to a climax and we realize the violent action that has been foreshadowed has finally occurred. There was a gun under the son’s pillow, so the reader knows that we the bang is likely a gunshot, that violence has occurred and that either the violence was done by the son or that he has been attacked. We can assume that someone is dead and has been killed. The fact that he drops his dish cloth and runs to the kitchen door may mean that the father is used to sounds like this (living in Belfast) but knows the implications of the gunshot. He seems aware that his son is probably involved.
- Falling action quote: “My son is lying on the floor, his head on the bottom stair, his feet on the threshold” (MacLeaverty 169).
Explanation: This is right after the climatic shot and explains the consequence of the shot. The conflict comes to an end and the tone and mood shifts from suspense to one of sadness and loss, now that we know who was shot and the implications. The son’s body position suggests that he was assassinated as he walked towards the entrance of the house. The story winds down because here the son is now officially dead.
- Falling action quotes: “I take my son’s limp head in my hands and see a hole in his nose that should not be there” (MacLeaverty, 169) Safety he’s coming to the conclusion that now something has to be done.
Explanation: This is another quote that winds down the story because it shows the father who initially held onto the faint hope that perhaps it was just a minor injury but now fully realizes the extent of the gunshot. The head is limp and lifeless and the position of the gunshot suggests it is fatally entered his brain. He can no longer deny the reality that the gunshot was definitely fatal and is mourning the loss of his son.
- Denouement Quote: ”My son, let me put my arms around you (MacLeaverty, 169)
Explanation: The quote finishes off the story because we see that the father only was able to hold the son once he was dead. The irony is that his closest attachment can only come after he is dead and unable to resist his affection. When the son was alive the son would have never let the father hold him. This is a conclusion because the father has reached an epiphany, realizing that connection with another human being, even when it is your son, often comes too late and so his request is a sad attempt to give a sense of dignity and love to his son, ironic given the undignified way he was murdered.