A Blow, a Kiss

In “A Blow, A Kiss”, Tim Winton displays ideas about family relationships, specifically father and son relationships and the text proves that Winton’s opinion towards these relationships are that a characteristic of a good family is that the father and son have to have a bond and have a close relationship. Other ideas that Winton brings forward are that country people are responsible, while city people are irresponsible, and that alcohol causes accidents and ruins families.

The relationship between Albie and his father is a close one, the start of the story shows that they went on a fishing trip, which is a generic father and son bonding activity. Albie enjoys his father’s company no matter what the circumstances, this is shown in the first sentence, ‘Despite their bad luck, Albie had enjoyed the night.’ Albie and his father have trust in their relationship, because Albie’s father trusted Albie to stay with the man that attacked him. The relationship between Wilf Beacon and his son was not a good one, Wilf beat his son’s head against a metal tray, which, in Winton’s opinion, is something that a good father would do. This shows that Winton is in favour of close father and son relationships.

Winton presents city people as irresponsible, as the motorcyclist was a city person, and he was drinking and driving, which is an unlawful and irresponsible act, which resulted in him crashing. Both Wilf Beacon and his son are abusive and aggressive, because Wilf ‘beat his son’s head against the tray’ and Wilf’s son ‘lashed out’ at Albie’s father and ‘pulled him down to the ground by his ears’. This shows that Winton thinks city people are irresponsible, but also when this text is read from a psychoanalytical perspective, Wilf and his son’s actions were controlled by the id. It is expected from society that you should be able to control your id by the things you have learned from society, i.e.. Your superego, but Wilf and his son are unable to control their desires, which...