In Fugitive Pieces, Jakob reflects on his relationship with Alex in Phosphorus. He gives a rather detailed encounter of her relationship with her father and the routines they had especially as she had lost her mother at a young age. The description is given in very emotive language, showing the great influence that her father had on her. This shows how important parenting is and the influence it had on Alex shaping her to be a character full of life ‘always hoping, or so she thought, for someone to wrestle her arms to her sides’. Her positive attitude and excitement reflects her upbringing; although she had a single parent upbringing, her father managed to preserve a sense of wonder and awe and this is seen when ‘he helped win the war with magic’. In chapter 11 of ‘once in a house on fire’, Ashworth talks about the relationship with her mother. At this point, all of her sisters and her mother had experienced violence, poverty and abuse from various ‘step fathers’ and have moved back to England from Canada, where Ashworth is showing the struggle her mother is going through and her effort to create a family environment and shape her children life, despite the all the odds against them. Ashworth is a retrospective narrator, who is telling a genuine autobiography, explores the roots of her success as an Oxford Graduate, poet and great author, and is often relating back to her mother’s influence, showing the importance of parenting.
In Phosphorus, Jakob talks about the parenting through the sense of security and closeness Alex and her father had: ‘Her father called her Sandra and she didn’t mind. With him, Alex had nothing to prove’. The fact that Alex’ father calls her by a shorter pet name shows how close they are, and the informality between them. From Jakob’s comment at the end of that sentence, it is clear that she doesn’t like when that is normally used showing the