Story Analysis

Posted by Chloe Bailey on November 12th, 2019

Mark Slouka managed to create a marvelously bitter story about the father’s deep love and tenderness towards his son whose miserable existence is even diminished in the story with the title “Crossing”. A single father decides to take his offspring on a walking tour for the first time after the divorce. The man realizes that his own and his son’s lives are in danger. The story contains an episode where the father catches his flesh and blood at his ex-wife’s house and quickly runs away; later, the whole plot is about his tribulation and suffering being on the line. The paper focuses on the theme of father-son dear relationships as well as the man’s dilemma and grief that his married life is collapsed but he still wishes to change the situation for the better and rehabilitate himself. Different elements of the story such as narration, plot, setting, symbolism, mood and figurative language help to unfold the message with the assigned accuracy. This story can be used for a sandwich book report examples. 

Narration plays a significant role in the story. The third-person limited narration leads the readers into the depths of father-son relationships and the collision between man and nature. The father who has recently divorced tries to establish a strong connection with his child and thinks about acting properly. Everything that is said or described in the “Crossing” is told from his omniscient point of view so that the readers can perceive, understand, and feel what the protagonist thinks, feels, or recalls in his memory. The audience can get into the matter of his tribulations in life, that “he hadn’t been happy for a while”. Using this narrative technique, the writer brings his readers closer to the protagonist. As a result, they can now experience his pain and challenges first-hand and aspire to follow him on his path. The limited narration does not allow us to look into the son’s head and find out what is going on there. However, the boy’s mind can be observed through the father’s eyes who describe him as a little and fragile child that needs protection: “he looked over miniature jeans, the sweatshirt bunched beneath the seat belt’s strap, the hiking boots dangling off the floor like weights”.

From the beginning of the story, narration produces suspense with the help of mood, setting, and word-usage. The setting plays a significant role in unfolding the central theme in the story. Therefore, the story takes place in Takoma, Washington D.C., the USA. The readers only can guess about the season as it is not mentioned in the text but as both father and son take their rest in tents and leap into the water, the season is probably summer or a spring. The readers have a good opportunity to observe the beautiful stars in the night sky as the main hero watches them through the top of his tent. As it was mentioned before, the setting has special importance in the story as it provides the audience with appropriate interpretation of the crossing and the stream that the readers will encounter later. The setting of “Crossing” is mostly founded on the descriptions of picturesque scenery and the surrounding environment within the plot. The place where both the father and the son were at a certain period of time in the story has made them cross that current and has caused them so many troubles. The text of “Crossing” is abundant with the multitude of adjectives that describe the setting, its vibrant colors and emotions these particular colors cause the main character to feel, for instance, during his flashbacks: “He stood there, listening to it seething in its bed, to the inane chatter of the pebbles in the shallows”.

The impressive, breath-catching plot helps to unfold the central theme of the main characters’ tribulations. It opens with an actual flashback into the events of the story, and then suddenly takes the audience to the rushing river where the father and the boy challenge their destiny. Every twist of the plot is so suspenseful that it threatens to be fatal for both the boy’s and his father’s lives. In the last paragraph, this suspense seems to be almost unbearable. Moreover, Slouka divides his plot into two sequential parts: the first one is father and son’s trip forth and back along the river and then the similar trip next day. The first trip introduces the river and the difficulties regarding its crossing to the readers. Here, the author gives a deep insight into the father’s mind recalling his childhood when his own father answered the question “what do you do if you fall” with “Don’t fucking fall”. As a result, it becomes evident where the story comes from. While the notorious river is in the center of the story, the main emphasis is on the protagonist’s thoughts and feelings. It is crucial that river only appears in the fifth paragraph. “Crossing” begins at home of father’s ex-wife when he takes his son for a camping trip. During his short stay in the house and during the crossing of the river later his thoughts spin around the possibilities to change the situation: “he looked away and at that moment he thought, maybe – maybe he could make this right”. It is interesting how the story opens with the man’s thoughts over improvement of the situation and ends with both the man and his son playing it close to the edge. The open ending makes “Crossing” a powerful story and leaves room for imagination: “There was nowhere to go. It didn’t matter. They had to go”.

The mood in “Crossing” is dull because the whole story focuses on the father’s attempts to establish a bond with his son and, perhaps, his dreams to recover the relationships with his wife who, unfortunately, still “shook her head and looked away and at that moment he thought, maybe - maybe he could make this right”. The unnamed man fetches his little boy to the special place from his own childhood to form the strongest bond with son. However, this place, is a wild nature in crisis and the father attempts to overcome all the obstacles presented by environment: “the river was bigger than he remembered it, stronger”. All the obstacles set in the way of the successful crossing by depressive nature make the mood of the story gloomy. Moreover, the weather leaves something to be desired. For example, at the beginning of the story the author describes bad conditions of the climate: “It was raining as they drove out of Tacoma”. The setting is symbolic as it conveys protagonist’s feelings. It does not tell the readers about the father’s emotions but indicates them via vivid symbols in “Crossing”. The river of life is described as mighty and powerful. Perhaps, it can devour any living and nonliving things into its depths and make them go with the last year’s snow. As a result, the author creates marvelous personification of the river: “It wanted him gone”. This figurative expression as well as the descriptions of empty edifices and rainy weather suggests that something bad may happen soon. In the story bad climatic conditions and challenges of the nature symbolize the hardships in the father’s life caused by his divorce. The symbolic river that they are trying to cross also serves as a metaphorical symbol for both separation and reunion of the father and the son. It unites them now when they are on the same path but may separate them in case of an accident. The title is also symbolic: “Crossing” is not something like “The Crossing” or “Crossing the Stream”; it is the present imperfect form of the verb to cross. Crossing denotes a very incomplete action in its midstream.

Mark Slouka’s story “Crossing” is, by no means, a challenging one. It unfolds a man vs. nature theme on the background of the father’s story of his own tribulations over his collapsed relationships with his wife and attempts to establish a tight bond with his little son. Setting, narration, plot, mood, symbols, and figurative language help to convey the message of “Crossing”. The third-person limited omniscient narrator is the protagonist himself who describes the environment, tells the readers about his own feelings in a certain situation leaving out some details for the readers to guess. This is from his narration that the audience becomes aware of the little boy’s appearance and behavior. The setting is also important for the unfolding of the story. The wild nature under the bad weather conditions makes the mood of “Crossing” gloomy and depressing. Nature stands in a way of father-son’s moving forward as though symbolizing the father’s tribulations over his collapsed relations with his wife and son. Exciting flashbacks turn the readers back into the protagonist’s past and clear certain things that influence his present. The open ending gives room for the reader’s imagination as to what will happen next: whether the father and the son will survive. Mark Slouka’s “Crossing” is worth reading.