A Boy at War

Adam’s relationship with his father has shaped the course of his life and the way he views himself and the world around him. Adam has a great deal of admiration for his father; his father enlisted in the navy when he was Adam’s age and has since risen to the rank of officer. Adam feels the pressure of his father’s expectations and wonders if he will ever be able to live up to them or perhaps even surpass what his father has achieved. Adam swells with pride when he goes to the movies with his parents. They are surrounded by sailors in their dress whites who salute his father as they walk past, and Adam feels sentimental surges of emotion when he is in his father’s company and swept up in the pageantry and commitment to the navy that Adam sees all around him.

Adam’s identity has been molded by his proximity to his father and his role as an extension of him. After being preoccupied throughout much of their evening at the movies by the concern that his father is angry with him, Adam manages to relax and enjoy himself only after he receives a conspiratorial wink from his father, indicating that his father is not upset and there is no more tension between them.