A Trip to Grand Rapids - Essay

In the short story, ‘a trip to Grand Rapids’ by Garrison Keillor in 1987, the main topic is family, where we are getting to know about the conflict and how it is to realize when your children are getting older and more independent.

Roger Hedlund, his wife Cindy and their two daughters, Cathy and Martha Hedlund are living at a farm in Lake Wobegon with their new black kitten, a dog named Oscar and some hens and chickens.

Roger Hedlund is a strict man and kind of like “his words is law” type of person and he is conscious of it.

“You don’t? No? Well. I don’t know either,” She said. “I was hoping you’d know. You’re always so – so-“
“Strict?” (Line 87-89)

Here we can see that he is aware of him being so strict.

But I don’t think he really is as tough as he tries to be, for example at the beginning of the text, when he orders Martha’s new little black kitten to spend the night outside. Here I think Roger wants appear tough on the outside, but really is softer on the inside and that’s why he ends up in the middle of the night looking for the kitten because he feels pity for it. I will say that this is one of the signs about Roger’s honor and pride. He doesn’t want anybody to know that he gets pity over a “stupid” kitten.
So when Martha says it’ll be easier if it just stays inside, he immediately agrees, which she didn’t seem to expect, so without notice she continues to try and convince him, even though he already agreed to it. I think that the reason he agreed so fast was because it was exactly what he wanted, he just didn’t want to suggest it himself and risk to appear sensitive or weak and lose his pride.

Roger and his wife have a good relationship and he is very supervising over his daughters. Not only is he supervising, he also proves some suspicions. He trusts his daughters, but only to a certain point. No matter what he still does turn the car around. Which proves he doesn’t have full trust in them. Cindy on the other hand, has a bit more faith in them.

“If we’re going to trust them, then we have to trust them and not go around spying on them to see if they do what we want or not.”
“I’m curious. I’m going over and see what’s going on. Want to come?”
“Of course I do,” She said. (Line 59-63)

But even though she seems to want to trust them, she doesn’t appear to do it completely, because she still says she wants to go in and see what is going on in the house, when Roger offers.

When they went up to the house, they saw what they expected. Their little girls were throwing a party, but they did the unexpected, with doubt whether or not it was the right thing to do, just stood there and watched their dear daughter take a cigarette and the party unfold, but didn’t stop it.

Eventually he realizes that he can only protect his children to a certain extent. He has done what he could to lead them into the right direction, but he won’t always be around to say what they should and shouldn’t do, so it was about time that they started to make the right decisions on their own, like he did when he was their age, and parties similar to this one.
And when he finally came to terms with that, he was more thankful than ever for the life he has.