Sunday In The Park Bel Kaufman Analysis

Michael Brooks

ENGH 396

Reading Response #2

September 17, 2015

Sunday in the Park Sunday in the Park by Bel Kaufman is an emotional short story the details a nice family’s encounter with an obnoxious, unpolished family. The short story plays on human emotion, instinct, and behavior as a way to illustrate the contrasting differences between both families. The story is about a family, a mother, a father and a young boy, who intend to spend a relaxing day together in the park. In the park, the young boy from the “nice family” is playing in the sandbox with a young boy from the other family. Suddenly, the boy from the other family starts throwing sand at the boy from the main family. The boy’s mother asks the other young man in the sandbox to

Kaufman uses great detail in setting up the scene by announcing more than once that Morton is off on the sidelines, quietly reading to himself. The doing so it paints the picture that he is generally a calm, mild-mannered individual. When Morton has his first interaction with the other father his body language is slumped and soft. It is almost as if he is afraid of the other father. In fact, after the two fathers have a rather awkward stare-down, Morton turns his back first to leave. By turning his back first it signals his meekness and passive nature. At the very end Morton’s tries to flex his authority and masculinity by offering to discipline their child who will not stop crying. When Morton tries to bypass the mother’s attempts at subduing their child he says, “If you can’t discipline this child, I will,” to which the mother coldly snaps back, “Indeed? You and who else?” This shows that the mother character has lost all respect for her husband, Morton. So much so that she cannot even trust that he has the control and muscle to discipline even their young boy.

Another way Kaufman chooses to build the character of Morton is by his frequent description of the park. Kaufman makes a conscientious effort to describe the park as “motionless”, “abandoned”, and even “deserted”. This description of the park speaks to the type of man Morton is. He is “motionless” when he interacts with the other father as he is unable to physically stand up for both himself and his family. While he doesn’t technically “abandon” or “deserted” his family, Morton has figuratively abandoned and deserted his role as leader and protector of his family as seen by is inability to handle the