Since modernism in the early twentieth century, many modern short stories have contained characters who undergo a kind of epiphany: a revelation or realisation which prompts them to reassess their view of the world or of themselves.

He co-opts the impersonal and national or universal commemorations the sticks are used to observe, and transforms his sticks into a personal means of communication with his grown-up children. In short, ‘Sticks’ is a masterly piece of short fiction which hollows out the symbols of Christianity – the crucifix, the annual holidays and observances, the plea for forgiveness – to create a personal ritual for the narrator’s father.

The string he ties between the central pole and the six little sticks is at once a bridge between father and children, and a flimsy symbol of the delicate (and at times strained?) relationship he had with them.

The only way he can communicate his feelings is via the sticks. The erecting of six little poles around the main one indicates that it is his children he is seeking forgiveness from, including the (grown-up) narrator of the story, for a lifetime of strictness and frugality and very little joy.īut he cannot do this directly: he doesn’t know how. The father doesn’t appear to be urging others to forgive people in general, but rather to be begging for forgiveness for his own sins or ‘errors’ (note how he had previously taped notes to the sticks, notes which are described as letters of apology, admissions of error, and pleas for understanding). The question mark changes the meaning, of course. Two events which involve major change (literally seismic in the case of the latter) prompt the father to erect new decorations: Groundhog Day (where the arrival or non-arrival of spring is said to turn on whether the groundhog sees its own shadow) and an earthquake in Chile, a momentous event which perhaps acts as a catalyst for the father’s self-reflection.Īnd other things are hinted at by those final signs which exhort the reader to ‘LOVE’ and ‘FORGIVE?’.

But the story takes a more personal turn in that second paragraph.

Sticks & stones abigail roux