Emotional Attachments Essay

In Alistair MacLeod’s short story, â€Å"The Boat†, there are many examples of where human emotions are attached to places and/or objects; known as physicalization. The emotions these things show, also depend on the person they are being viewed by. There are examples of how one space can have two very different emotional attachments. These differences in opinion can cause tension in some relationships and are there with a constant reminder of the contrast between two people. A good representation of physicalization is the object that is in the title. The boat, is one of the most important possessions to this Nova Scotian family. It provides their livelihood and everything that the mother perceives to be important. For the mother in this story, the boat embodies what it means to be a fishing family. She â€Å"was of the sea as were all her people,† which is why all her brothers were fishermen and she wanted to be married to a fisherman (paragraph 15). In her eyes, there was no other way to respectfully earn a living and she believed that people who weren’t from around where she lived did not know what it was like to work hard. For her, the boat was who they were and held all her emotions of hope and accomplishment. This is different from the emotions that the boat held for the father. He fished for a living, to keep his wife happy, but he was never truly a fisherman. He did not enjoy fishing like the rest of his wife’s family did. His skin was not tough enough as â€Å"the salt water irritated his skin as it had for sixty years†¦and his arms, especially the left, broke out into the oozing saltwater boils†. (paragraph 60) The sun and wind took a toll on his body that the others did not experience. To him, the boat held emotions such as pain, despair and struggle. He would rather be inside, reading and learning, but was instead forced to fish. The differences in physicalization in this story are also represented in the opinions of the father’s room. For him, it was a place where he could finally relax after a long day of work. It was his escape from the world; somewhere he could enjoy his books and not worry about his mess. The room was home to his emotions of calm and comfort, and was somewhere he could really be himself. Even within this room he could not escape the sea as the only window in the room overlooked it. His room was a place where he connected with his precious children in an unconditional manner. Here they learned about their true father and they learned how to gain knowledge. The father’s room, while a source of aggravation for the mother, was a place of safety and comfort for the father. For his wife, his room was a constant battle. â€Å"She despised the room and all it stood for†. (paragraph 23) She had long ago stopped trying to clean it, and had started to simply ignore it. To her, all his reading was a waste of time, but she was able to ignore it until it started to influence their children. To her, the room was a challenge and represented some of the main differences between she and her husband. The use of physicalization, allowed the author to show the tension that is between the parents and in the whole family. Somewhere that makes one person feel comfort, is the same place that makes another person feel stress. Sometimes these contrasts in emotion can be ignored, but often they lead to issues. This is clearly not a perfect family, and challenges they face are made obvious by the difference in emotions for certain things between the parents.