Bruce’s Father Character Analysis

Bruce’s father is a man of few words. He and Bruce’s mother are on the older side, and they are both somewhat fearful and disapproving of the world beyond their little sawmill town. They are teetotalers who share with many townies a vague fear of the sea and the forests lying just outside their community. Bruce’s father works in the sawmill and organizes weekend fishing outings with his coworkers, where he says little but takes responsibility for the logistics. Despite the few words exchanged, these fishing trips are a site of bonding between the young Bruce, who often tags along, and his father. When surfing captures Bruce’s attention—in spite his father forbidding him to go to the sea—Bruce loses interest in the fishing trips, and this hurts his father deeply. The two grow estranged, although Bruce’s father eventually (but not verbally) indicates his respect for Bruce’s new fixation when he sees that his son has worked hard enough chopping wood to save up for his own surfboard. Bruce suggests that he resembles his father in being a “bad communicator,” and this inherited trait will hinder Bruce throughout his romantic life in addition to imposing a profound distance between father and son. When Bruce’s father is killed in a freak accident in the sawmill, Bruce is chastened and temporarily rejects the death-defying lifestyle he had been practicing up to then. Bruce never has the opportunity to redress the distance that grew between him and his father before he is randomly taken away, which alerts Bruce to the fragility of life.