Alistair macleod the boat

Answer 1

Here's Alistair MacLeod's short story, "The Boat", is a short story told from the perspective of a boy living in Cape Breton (Canada's East coast) in around 1940s (ish). It is about the reality of the harsh life style that fisherman in Nova Scotia lead. The story is told when the boy has grown up, but he is talking about his childhood. The central character is the boys father, a fisherman who has never really liked the fishing lifestyle and who clearly would have preferred to get an education. Many times it is pointed out that he values education, for example his room is descried as being full of books, however he never had the chance. He would like for his son to get an education and not have to live the dangerous and harsh lifestyle he does- the lifestyle that ends up killing him. The conflicts in this short story are between the narrators mother and father, as his mother does not share the same feeling about education and escaping from the fishing world that the father does. She is conservative in that she wants everything to remain the same, and therefore struggles to isolate both herself and her family from the 'outside' societyes (the tourists and larger cities). She especially did not approve of her daughters leaving Cape Breton, as she made very clear when she said "it seems none of them are interested in any of the right things... I hope you'll be satisfied when they come home knocked up". The second, and more important, conflict is the narrator's internal conflict; he wants to study, but realizes that he is the only son and the only one who can support his parents and follow in the fishing business.

Answer 2

"The Boat" by Alistair MacLeod is a short story that explores themes of familial duty, tradition, and the relationship between father and son. It tells the story of a father and his son as they prepare to go fishing, highlighting the son's conflicted feelings about leaving his family's traditional way of life behind.