"Ashes" Response

                           Ashes Response


“I wouldn’t have any other dad,” I told him. The short story “Ashes” by Susan Beth Pfeffer the reader is introduced to a young girl named Ashley, facing a family struggle. This is told by the protagonist’s relationship mainly with her father, showing us love is complicated even with family members that are close.

Ashes’ father complicates their relationship by manipulating her to get what he wants. Susan Beth Pfeffer says, “I knew I wasn’t a one-in-a-million girl, no matter how often Dad told me I was. But no matter how often he told me, I still loved hearing him say it.” Ashes makes this statement as if she knows her dad was showing fake affection but she didn’t want to ruin her own joy of hearing her dad repeat those words. In the short story it also states that dad says, “You look radiant,” he said. “You get more and more beautiful. Turn around. Let me admire every single inch.” Ashes knew she didn’t look so radiant and stunning because she had on “… jeans and a bulky brown sweater” her mother gave her for Christmas. The dad was trying to hold on to the last of his hope that Ashes would infer she was beyond special in his eyes.

The mother and father are very opposite in terms of stability. The mother is very stable and reliable because Ashes describes her saying, “Her pocketbook overflows with tissues and tampons for anyone who might need them.” I infer even when her mother is at a rough time in life she is still the one parent Ashes can rely on. The father on the other hand isn’t so stable, even Ashes can tell this. In the story Ashes dad decides to take her out to a to a diner and she says, “Can you afford it?” I asked, after doing the mental arithmetic of diner versus pizza.” Throughout their supper the father bring up the topic of finance saying, “All I need to do is put together a little financing, and I’ll be set for life.” Thinking back to the beginning the father doesn’t have too much money to start with, so how will he get this “little financing” to be set for life and show Ashes that he is stable and will be willing to be there when she needs him.
Ashes father knows that she doesn’t have the same affection for her father as her mother. This is told by Ashes and her father both, he tells Ashes “I wish I deserved you.” By saying this I can tell that Ashes’ dad constantly thinks about how astonishing Ashes is, and how he feels she does deserve a more supportive father. Another thing that supports the thesis is the dad repeatedly saying Ashes is a “one-in-a-million-girl.” Ashes repeatedly hearing this is going to give off thinking as to why does he keep telling me I’m one-in-a-million?
 

Susan Beth Pfeffer does achieve the goal as to showing the struggle in a young teens life with parents who are completely different in stability. Many teens today have parents who are both stable in love and finance, unlike Ashes’ father. Although it shows Ashes’ point of view in this situation it doesn’t show her  mother’s point of view or even her fathers, which would be interesting to read this on there behalf.