Manhood-Summary
In the following John Wain’s short story “Manhood”, which was published as a single short story in
1980, will be summarized.
The main theme of the story is about how the relationship between children and parents can be
influenced by pressurizing parents. The main characters are Rob Willison, a fourteen year old boy
who is not as sportive as his father wants him to be, due to a heart problem which makes him weaker
than most of the boys his age. Mr. Willison is very ambitious and strictly forces Rob to build up his
strength to be better in sports, because he himself had not been that way as a child. Mrs. Willison is
worried about her son’s health and does not agree with her husband’s techniques. She wants the
best for her son and he being healthy would be enough for her.
The story starts out with Rob and his father being on a bike ride. Rob is exhausted and does not want
to go up the hill which is in front of the two. Mr. Willison convinces his son to do so anyways and
pushes Rob to the limit. This is typical of their relationship since Rob’s father had never had the
chance to do sports when he was a child, because he had to study in fear of unemployment, so now
he pushes his missed out experience on his son. He does not seem to care for his physical
disadvantages. The bike ride was set by Mr. Willison, so a present could be fixed for Rob. He tells Rob
about it to motivate his fatigued son to face the long ride home.
When the father and son come home, Rob’s present turns out to be a boxing sack. At this point Rob’s
mother starts protesting against her husband’s ambitious behavior, but her son seems to be grateful
for the boxing sack and starts practicing every day.
One day at the dinner table, Rob admits that he did not make the football team. His father remains
calm and finds the reason for this situation to be bad luck. After a short time Rob states that he did
make the boxing team instead. Mr. Willison is very proud and starts working out with his son on a
regular basis to improve his skills.
As the story goes on, Rob claims to be chosen to be his school’s representative at the boxing state
competition. From now on, the duo keeps practicing even harder on the displeasure of Mrs. Willison.
The day of the competition is there and Rob shouts for father to come upstairs to his room. He is
aching and says he has appendicitis. Mr. Willison tells him that he does not believe him and how
everyone is depending on his performance today. Now Rob shouts for his mother who comes
upstairs quickly. She is full of worry and tells her husband to call a doctor. Mrs. Willison blames the
situation on her husband.
Mr. Willison decides to call Rob’s coach first. As he finds out the coaches number and calls him, he
gets informed that he does not know his son and that the school does not even have a boxing team.
Rob lied to his father and had never been in a boxing team.
Lea Schumacher-EF-May 2015
Manhood
When I was your age, I wished to be like the popular kids
I wished to be strong
I wished to be confident
I wished to be recognized.
Instead I went through high school life as me.
As the weak
As the shy kid who never talked
As the one whom nobody knew.
When I escaped the judging High School Society
I swore to myself to become the kid I always wanted to be.
But pretty soon I noticed that my childhood became my past.
Adolescence hit me as fast as an express train.
When I accepted, I had become a grown-up,
I made myself to be
The hardworking,
The one who went to the limits,
The one who never gave up
Eventually, I married the love of my life
When I became a father,
I swore to myself to become the best father
I wanted my son to escape from teenager’s cruelty
I once experienced.
-
I taught him to be like the popular kids.
To be the strong
To be the confident
To become the recognized
I never could have been
I did my best, day by day,
To give him what he needed.
I taught him that
Dedication is more important than Intelligence,
The power of will stronger than a smart thought,
A winning trophy better than good grades,
And Sports more valuable than School
I did my best, day by day,
For sure
But what I gave him was really MY best
And not HIS
When I realized that my attempt to do good,
Has turned out to be the opposite
That I didn’t teach him to be able to be proud,
But to be ashamed of what he truly is
-
I taught him that
Dedication is more important than HIS intelligence,
The power of will stronger than HIS good thought,
A winning trophy better than HIS good grades,
And HE less valuable than what I wanted him to be
When I came back to reality to realize that
I wanted my beloved son to make up for my regrets
I had turned his trust to dust
His hope to fear
And his confidence to a minimum
I had mistaken my son for myself
What a cruel thing to do
I became the teenage society I had wished to curse
I had become the villain in my son’s life
Kids can be cruel, they say
Today, I learned that I never bore it
It is my weakness that I wanted to make my offspring’s strength
Today, I also learned that strength is something completely different
It is not about fitting in
Fulfilling the norm
Or even breaking a school record
It is about being true to you,
Being brave enough to stand out
And eventually, convincing others of your beautiful self
It is easy to be accepted if you impress with the superficial
Don’t get me wrong, that’s perfectly fine
If that’s who you really are
If you are the sports crack,
If you are the confident student council president,
But don’t write a book by putting together stolen pages
Strength is to be proud of falling out of alignment
Come on, wear your nerdy glasses and write your poems
They are not cheesy, they are not ridiculous
They only are what you want them to be
Take courage, go to those dancing classes
Even if you are a guy
That does not make you gay
You do not look funny doing it
It is not what only girls do
It only is what you make out of it
This is day one of making your own rules
This is day one after a million misunderstood days of living
This is day one after repeating my mistake
This is day one of saying sorry
I once had the chance of being the flower that flourished in another color
But I had chosen to never flourish
My son had the chance to have the brightest blossom
But I chose for him to flourish the same way as the others do
Beauty, my son, is underrated
Beauty is not the way a coincidence designed our appearance
Beauty is what is hidden inside
Some people never let it out
It is as if they cover themselves with their bodies
Eyes can’t discover beauty
“Sticks and stones might break your bones,
But words can never hurt you”
What a dumb thing to say
You cannot put a cast around something invisible
There is no prescription medicine against hurt feelings
The sad part is that I can only say sorry
I cannot forgive myself
I wish I could fix you
I wish I could put back together the pieces that add up to you
I once tore them apart, but you need to take the burden
That’s not right or fair,
But it is not a choice
There is more than one path to happiness,
But I had no idea.
You lied to me, because I made you lie to yourself
If you never want to talk to me ever again
I understand
Honestly, I don’t even want to talk to myself
When I look in the mirror,
I don’t see the superficial anymore
My selfish behavior made me capable of seeing the beast inside
Seeing someone’s true self can be a blessing or a curse
You might see true beauty
A colorful, shining warmness
That stays hidden from the most of us
You might even think you witness an angel
But you might also see nasty ugliness
A dark, cold and uncomfortable creature
That most of us experience, but never see
You might even think you witness the devil
It grabs you and pulls you into its cave
If you escape, you are left with scratches and wounds
But even those are part of you
Without them, you could never receive the countless blessings
Do you know who I am inside?
I have become what I feared
I became the bully I had wished to ban from this world
Happiness is a choice, but not for me anymore
I had taken my chance and lost it
I lost it and only you can give it back to me
I am not asking you to do so
I am only begging you to forget what I taught you
I am begging on my knees
Fix the things I broke
I would do it for you,
If it was made to work out this way
But it is not
Draw your own picture
Don’t use the colors others give to you
Erase mine and cover them with your own
Draw what is invisible and show it
Stop concealing, start being
My son, I am broken, because you are
You are broken, because I broke you
I am broken, because I broke you
So, I can only be whole again,
When you are
Apologies are not paying the price
I did the math
You will have to be a stronger person than I have ever been
The past, the presence and the future are one:
They are today.*
Make the best out of my worst
The difference between a man and a boy
Is to carry on apart from what has happened
If you ask me, I am still a boy
Son, I ask you to become a man