A Gift of Laughter

In the story, “The Gift of Laughter” the man’s son, Robbie made a drawing for him but the father told him to wait because he was talking to the mother about something important. The son wanted to express his feelings to his dad since his birthday was on Saturday. Soon as Robbie slammed the door the father had a flashback to the day he was a kid. the father misunderstood the grandmother and got her a football. Soon as he found out he misunderstood, he felt shame and went to his room. After a while his mom came and took him to living room. He sees a big glass bowl with food in it and in the middle the football he got for his grandma. She was sweet enough to accept the gift and say “From a child is beautiful, anything.” Soon as the father came back to the present he began to realize that he doesn’t want Robbie to hate him in the future. So he tries to make amends and go to store to buy a frame for the drawing.

I think it was good of the father to make amends. I think it is better to have a relationship while your children are young or the child will have an emotional disconnection from the parent. When I read the story I felt that sometimes parents will do that but at the end of the day will try to make it up. But if you ignore the child long enough he/she will feel like the parent doesn’t love him/her. I felt the tone in the beginning of the story was like annoyed and mad tone and then throughout the story feeling remorse because of the way he treated his son. On page 32 and 33 Sherman capitalizes “Leaves Home” and “Left Home.” I think when he capitalizes it he meant that whenever he (the past Sherman) or his son Robbie tried to run away but was not successful because he will miss home or the parents tries to talk to them. I think the author Sherman picked the title “A Gift of Laughter” because they both shared something in common and felt the same emotions. I supposed they laugh about it on the way to the store. When I was younger I always tried to “Leave Home” but it never works because I don’t have the guts and plus where would I go? I have left one time but I came back after I cooled down. My dad doesn’t always try to talk to me.