Life Sentence

LIFE SENTENCE The father in Ethan Coen’s short story, “The Boys”, is a man dealing with serious depression. The conflicts in his life have consumed him and he has lost control, a position that his desperately craves. At the midpoint of his years and stranded in a no-man’s-land between his conscience and his trying boys, the father struggles to regain the upper hand on his routine called life. Passages throughout the story reveal …

…act of sex appeared as quivering compulsions.” He has locked himself in a prison cell with his wife and boys and he, regrettably, was the one to lock the door and throw away the key. Now, like a donkey being led by a carrot on a string, the father goes through the motions of life. He hopes that his patience is not for nothing and that he will one day regain control of his life.