Compass and Torch
The short story Compass and Torch is written by the writer Elizabeth Baines. The short story is told in present time and the narrator is a third person narrator. The theme in the shore story is the relationship between father and son – a theme that the whole short story is based on.

In the short story we are told about four different characters; the boy, the father, the mother and the stepfather. The four characters are very different from each other and the writer has managed to create four strong characters, which is a fact that gives the reader an opportunity to label the characters personalities. The mother in the short story is clearly a loving and carrying person. She is divorced from her former husband and …show more content…

I think that the compass is a symbol of the way the son and father tries to reconnect. Both of the characters forget their compass at home and I think that this fact suggest that they are unable to find their way back to a sincere father-son relationship, because of the unknown failures the father has committed in the past. In the short story our attention is also drawn to the fact that the two torches play an important part. I think that the two torches symbolize the two characters hope of establishing a father-son relationship: Two torches are for father and son to back each other up. I think that the lighting from the torches symbolizes the two character’s hope of rebuilding what they once shared. In the short story there is a common symbol – the horse/horses. I’m convinced that the horses symbolize the father’s feelings. In the beginning of the trip a horse joins the father and the son, but the father bats the horse away. I think that this episode symbolizes that the father is eager and curious about this father and son trip (like the horse), but at the same time he can not help being a little resigned and pessimistic about the whole idea of reconnecting with his son, because he in some how is unable to believe in the opportunity of him relating to his son and the other way around (and therefore he bats the horse away, because the horse is a symbol of his hope). In the short story we hear about the horse several times, but when the