Summary Of Bastards By Lee Martin

Locked Inside One’s Body: Imprisoning Ourselves American writer, Lee Martin in his essay “Bastards,” describes the difficulties one encounters while trying to leave the past behind. Martin recalls his relationship with his father was by mentioning several factors that created a violent and an unhappy environment such as constant confrontations and verbal abuse that at times led to physical violence. He explains that due to his father losing both of his hands in an accident created an unsuitable place for him to reside in. Martin, instead of facing his reality, being an unhealthy relationship with his father, he instead decides to hide this phenomenon, his purpose being to forget about the past by avoiding to discuss it. Martin’s

As mentioned earlier, Martin’s family’s purpose for moving was to start a new life and leave the past behind; however, after realizing that the issue prevailed into the new house, he resulted in hiding the problem. Martin covering his case with his father, however, proved to only lead to more pain, eventually leaving him to the point of comparing himself as a prisoner who has no way out of his problem: “I was imprisoned, locked inside my father’s rage, held in a place I didn’t want to be but didn’t know how to escape” (167). Concealing the issue that was composed of constant arguments between them for years had finally reached to the point of making Martin a prisoner. Although some people suggest that one is better off by ignoring the issues or avoiding confrontation, but in Martin’s case, it proved that avoiding to speak about one’s issues can result in a profound pain that would continue to haunt him—as we see an adult Martin later in his essay who still admits to be fighting against himself, as he points out, “even now, when I live a more gentle life, I still feel I’m fighting the rage that my father left inside me, always trying to tamp it down, always on guard against its return” (169). Concealing an unhealthy relationship rather than admitting and facing the problem proved to cause more pain to Martin even after he lived his own