Red truck
1. A short story by Maria Behan.
The Red Truck is about an almost fifty years old man. Who has to clear his things out of the attic in his mother's house, but in the start of the story, he doesn't want to do it. When he starts cleaning up the attic, he finds an old dinky truck and when he saw it and touched it, he was transferred back to his sixth birthday. It had been his favorite gift, he played a lot with the truck back then and one day he lost it. He thought that his brothers had stolen the truck, because they used to tease him. But one day he found it, and it was himself who had lost it playing in a cornfield. He didn't told anyone that he found it back then. When he leaves the attic now, he goes to his mother to show her what he found in his brothers box's.

2.
When he was young, he was the youngest brother, he had 2 older brothers Peter and Shane. He was daily bullied by his older brothers. His father is the house's leader, and Fintan respects him a lot, even though the father doesn't attend to his birthday party.
Fintan finds a way of escaping the bullying he experiences every day in the truck he got in a gift “the truck seemed to hint at the possibility of manliness and eventual escape from the humiliations heaped on him by Shane and Peter.” When the truck then disappears he starts claiming his brothers, they have stolen his only joy away from him. When he found it again he became dishonest, and revengeful as he discover his own mistake, so he lies and hides the truck in a false bottom of the his wardrobe, where he also kept other secret things.
Fintan is now almost fifty years old. He always falls in love with pretty young women. All his girlfriends have been in their late twenties and they all were art students. He has a time problem, and that's why he doesn’t have a job. He has always believed that the years would go slowly, and that he would have no pension. Even though people told him to get a pension, he didn't, maybe because he was afraid of being old.
He still remember that his brothers was bullying him, he is still stuck in the past. That's why he end up lying for his mom, and gives his brothers the blame about stolen the truck. A way of revenge over his brothers and a way of getting back at them for the many years of bulling.

2.
The red truck has a really important role in the story. When Fintan was a child he used to play with the truck and every time he played with it, he felt free and safe from his brothers' teasing and everything else. The red truck Is a symbol in the story. It might symbols the not existing relationship with the father. Maybe he thinks it shows masculinity and that he wants to be like his father one day, because his father drives trucks in his job. And the truck is also a symbol for the friendship he doesn't have. The truck is the first thing he thinks about when he wakes up and the last thing he thinks about when he goes to sleep.
When Fintan now is a grown up man, and sees the truck again he starts considering his possibilities before going down and telling his mother a lie, so it seems like he still thinks about it and his childhood.

4.
I think that all siblings are rivals in a way. The story shows a very big rivalry but even siblings who are best friends have jealousy. It is more than normal to fight for the parents attention. And when there is more than one to gain it, there must be jealousy.
I have a brother, he is my best friend. We love being together, we have a very close bond. We love competing, and sometimes we are competing to hard maybe, but I don't feel that we have a rivalry like many other have. I think we had it maybe when we were younger, when I was 7 and he was 18 or something like that. But now when we are grown up and both adults, we are better friends than we ever have been.
Many of my friends who have little sisters and little brothers says that they are annoying. And the biggest reason is that the youngest sometimes needs more attention than the older one, and takes the attention in a way that is annoying the oldest.
Siblings can discuss and seems like they are worst enemies one moment, and the another moment they are best friends again. With a brother or sister you always have one to talk, play and discuss with. Siblings are a good thing in my eyes rivalry or not.