"It Pours" Tim Parrish

"It Pours"

Tim Parrish

"'You could've stopped him from going,' I said to him up on his ladder. He knew immediately what I meant. His eyes widened with hurt in a way I had never seen before, then they darkened. 

'He made his own mind up,' he said" (25).

In this passage, the narrator Jeb is asking his dad why his dad chose not to stop his brother, Bob, from enlisting in the war. However, this short story directly correlates to Tim Parrish' own adolescent life. When Tim was growing up, his brother, Robert enlisted in the war to prove his worth. As a result, the whole family suffered from the strain. Tim resented his dad for neglecting Robert's decision to go. Robert had, after all, decided to go to prove his worth to his father by enlisting. Robert felt compelled to make a drastic change in his life to be worth something to his father. In his memoir, Parrish reflects on his childhood. He writes that he and his brothers were terrified of disappointing their father. He continuously degraded them in an attempt to make them stronger men who would stand up for what they believed in. 

This story explores the boundaries between fact and fiction and how to integrate both of them into a short story. In his memoir, Tim Parrish talks about how this first story in his collection is largely autobiographical. Tim Parrish wrote about how difficult it was for him to integrate the truths into his own writing. Tim and his brother, Robert both resented his father for never showing approval. In the story, Jeb's father obsesses over fixing the house rather than working to fix his relationship with his son. Tim describes this as a confusing time to understand. The house in the story serves as a metaphor for the dad's son, Bob. The dad over compensates and spends too much time on fixing the house and the drain pipe in the storm as a way to compensate for neglecting his son. He felt guilt for not stopping Bob from going to the war and not paying attention to him. 

Tim Parrish also explores the specificity required to make a story that isn't real seem real. He adds characters such as Jeb’s neighbors, the Ramos’ who are in a similar situation. Their situation parallels Jeb’s family to add dimension to the story. Mr. Ramos also neglected his son to a certain extent. Mr. Ramos obsesses over his car instead of the house because his son, Tootie is in jail for drug possession. Both of these fathers struggle to cope with the “loss” of their sons and feel immense guilt. These stories are about guilt, and how to redeem yourself.