Analysis of Christmas Morning by Frank O’ Connor Essay Example

when Sonny tells Larry that the police have been to the Doherty house. The very accurate reason why he hated Sonny is that because Sonny can spell better than him and plays up to his mother, taking what Larry believes is his mother’s affection. In all of these instances, Larry’s attitude towards his brother is very much typical of these times. It brings us to the reality part that siblings do sometimes hate each other.

It in normal to siblings to have a little quarrel fights. And it is almost a fantasy that siblings nowadays do agree every time a decision or law is implanted that can affect them or not. His attitude toward his brother therefore emphasized the gap between fantasies from reality. ‘Mother’ is defined as the person in whom life receives a form suitable for living in this world. What does ‘living in this world’ mean? It means that a person is alive and functioning physically and spiritually. It means that a person hungers for physical food - breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

It also means that a person hungers for the spiritual nourishment - loving others and being loved by them, establishing intimate, committed and growing relationships, appreciating culture and nature, and most of all – loving and worshipping the Creator. All these begin to take shape and grow in the person of the mother. And one thing her responsibility but at the same time her happiness would fall on her children. But in the story, the ‘mother’ was biased to Sonny but there is a deeper reason why she tried to disciplined and lead Larry to the right and

good way.

This is because she did not wanted Larry to end up being his father who is known as common and drunkard. His mother did many things to unhitch the hard-headedness of her eldest son. One instance is when she deprived Larry from playing with his friends because he went on a Lang with the Doherty’s. (Lang is when someone intentionally absent without any authorized permission.) And after three days Mr. Dawley, Larry’s teacher sends word to Mrs. Delaney that Larry has been absent from school, and when he comes home, after pretending to be in school, she gives out to him.

Sonny delights in Larry’s misfortune and stands at the door telling the children on the street that Larry isn’t allowed out to play from the mouth of their mother. This kind of mother-son relationship grew worse when Christmas morning came. It was when Larry switched his gift that was a book to Sonny’s supposedly gift that was a toy gun. Larry actually thought that Santa gave the gifts to them. And in this mind set, there was a hint that Larry actually believed in fantasies like Santa rather than the reality his mother thought. And that reality his mother was thinking is that Larry would end up like his drunkard father.

That was enough to have the gap of reality to fantasy be obvious. Fathers play an important role in a child's development from birth through adulthood. In fact, numerous studies have reached the same conclusion: Children with involved fathers have an advantage - socially and academically - over children with distant or no relationships with their dads. Children

with fathers who take the time to ask about what they learned in school and their day-to-day social activities and relationships do better in school than kids who don't have that kind of input or interest.

And it's important to note that this father figure doesn't have to be a biological father in order for children to benefit. It can be an adoptive father, stepdad, or an adult male in the household. But in the case of the story, all the matters above were the other way around, it was the opposite of all. Father here was described as a drunkard and usually went to home very late at night. O’Connor moves the story to Christmas Eve and brings in the father. He arrives home from work, having already had drink taken, and leaves Mrs. Delaney short in the housekeeping.

She pleads with him to give her more money, for the sake of the children and he eventually ends up giving her two extra half crowns. With this money the reader is aware that she is going to town to get the Christmas presents, though Larry thinks it is to buy a Christmas candle. And it that way, the father’s attitude towards his family gave us a hint that reality do exists in the stories. There are fathers that are loyal to his family, but there are also fathers who are not. To get a glimpse of what actually happened in the story, here it was it goes.

The most important thing in Larry’s life is what Santa Claus will bring him for Christmas. Even though the Doherty brothers have told him

there is no Santa Claus, just what your parents buy you, Larry still believes in Santa Claus and wants a model railway. Starting to get a little worried that Santa won’t bring him the railway set, because his mother has told him Santa only brings presents to those little boys who have done their best, Larry instead of knuckling down in school starts to go on the lang (go absent from school without permission).

He’s unable to do the sums that his teacher Flogger Dawley has given him, and instead of trying, like Sonny would do, he goes on the lang with Peter Doherty. Larry’s plan is to see if he can stay awake so that he can talk to Santa Claus himself. That night Larry is apprehensive and tries his best to stay awake so that he can catch Santa Claus, even trying to wake Sonny to keep him company, though Sonny can’t be budged. Larry does however stay awake long enough to hear his father come in from the public house, and while drunk, start to try and sing the Adeste.

Larry is used to his father having a drop taken and knows that he is making the words of the hymn up as he goes along. His mother is annoyed and storms off to the bedroom, by which time Larry himself falls asleep. When he wakes up he sees that he’s missed Santa Claus, but that his stocking is full. He checks the presents that Santa Claus has left and is disappointed. All he has gotten are a few sweets, a pen and pencil and a book. Not able to

contain his disappointment, Larry decides to have a look at what Sonny got, and when he realises that he got a pop gun, he decides to switch the presents around.

Pleased with himself he falls back asleep only to be woken by Sonny who tells Larry that he has a pop gun. Larry pretends to be surprised and the children decide to go into their parents’ bedroom and show them what Santa left. Larry knows that the game may be up, but as he still believes in Santa Claus, he thinks that he can fool his mother. Christmas Morning ends with Larry and Sonny in their parents’ bedroom and Mrs Delaney noticing that Larry has switched the presents. She gives out to him and tells him that she knows what he’s done.

It is now that Larry realises that there is no Santa Claus and that the Doherty brothers are right. But as Larry runs out of the house and lies in the grass, crying by the alley, what is more frightening for him than the feelings of guilt is the realisation that his mother had been relying on him to raise her out of the life she was leading, and that his father was no more than a drunkard. Larry now knows that that his mother thinks he will turn out just like his father and become a drunkard too. It is a harsh lesson in growing up for Larry Delaney.