Sticks -George Saunders

"Sticks" is a very appropriate title for the story because it signifies the importance of the other six sticks that the father had planted around the pole. Those sticks represented his children and in his own way he was asking for their forgiveness. This also in a way shows that the children were important to the father. At first there was just the original pole which he used to dress up on special occasions, which the children were not allowed to touch. That means the pole was really important to the father, later he added sticks to represent his children, so in his own way he is showing how important his children are to him.

The other thing that i realized while reading this story is that everyone has different ways of dealing with stuff or expressing their feelings. Some of us are big on words and we like to talk about what we are feeling, some of us dont like to talk and we look for other ways to deal with stuff. So this was the fathers coping mechanism and his way of showing what is important to him and what is he feeling. May be he did not know how to show love or affection or what to say to his children so he planted the sticks and taped letters of apology to them. Through