The Desire for Success in the Family Nearly everyone has something they wish to achieve, whether it is financial surplus, a happy family, good grades, and beyond. This desired end goal creates a personal idea of success. Frequently, authors explore the idea of success through different characters and backgrounds. Throughout E. L. Doctorow’s The Writer in the Family, the main character, Jonathan, uses his recently deceased father’s definition of success to shape his own, even if it results in a bit of family drama.
Right at the story’s commencement, the narrator begins to define what success is to him. His father, Jack, has recently died, but his grandmother of ninety is not even aware that Jack has been ill . Thus, Jonathan’s aunt …show more content…
Jonathan, again, looks back on his father’s life, specifically when Jack begins to fall “into a pattern of business failures”, Ruth (Jonathan’s mother), and Jonathan’s father’s family starts to debate who should be “responsible” for Jack’s lack of ability to live “up to anyone’s expectations” (608). Jonathan never explicitly states both sides’ definitions of success, but clearly they are both quite demanding, and his father has done his best to keep up. His father always tries to get “things wholesale” and is “always on the hook” (612). Family relationships are so strained to the point that he has “to pay back” any favors that are done for him (612). Eventually, all these demands come far enough that there is a significant stress on the family dynamic and the relationship between each member of the …show more content…
She, allegedly, makes “Jack crazy with her demands” and “always” has the grandest desires, but Jack has never been able to “fulfill them to her satisfaction” (613). At one point, after the First World War, Jack even begins to make some money to pay off debts. However, Ruth becomes “desperate” to have a “mink jacket”, and thus Jack can never rid himself of his arrears (613). After learning of his family’s history of incomprehensible desires, Jonathan’s view on his family clearly changes. He reflects, thinking about how “stupid, and imperceptive” he has been, as he never took time to understand his “father’s dream” for life (616). In the end, Jonathan decides to go with what his heart is truly telling him to do, and sends a letter to his grandmother (still in the perspective of Jack) about his battle with an unknown “ailment” and his knowledge of “dying of the wrong life” (616). In conclusion, E. L. Doctorow makes a compelling case in The Writer in the Family about a family’s struggle with success, what it means to them, and how easy it is to tear a family apart. Though success is something very personal, it is still something that affects each and every person, as well as the people nearest to them. Without success, there would never be goals and aspirations, or desires to be the best possible person.