Brittany Duncan
ENGL 1101
December 2, 2007
Prof. Bishop
Marijuana and the Growth to Manhood
In the novel The World Made Straight by, Ron Rash, marijuana plays a very important role. In most cases marijuana is usually looked down on and is never a good thing. In this novel marijuana helps a young teenage boy who feels like he has no one to turn to through a lot of troubling situations. Marijuana represents Travis’s growth into a man.
Marijuana represents a way for Travis to break away from and disobey his father. When Travis was cutting down the marijuana plant it symbolized him cutting himself away from his family, mainly his father. His father was a very cold man toward Travis. Travis never did anything good enough and if he did his father would have never admitted it to him. Travis’s father would rag him about things that most parents would praise their child for. When Travis studied so hard for his GED and actually passed it his own father did not even come to his celebration dinner. Being treated like this made Travis felt very resentful toward his father and he did not want to have anything to do with him. Travis grew up in a home where he knew the rules and he was afraid to break them because he also knew the consequences of disobeying. So Travis knew that his father would not take any smart talk or anything like that out of Travis. Travis was to scared to even try because he knew his father was not a man to mess with he would of beat him black and blue. But Travis had a lot of hatred stored up toward his father through all the years and he had to get it out somehow. So when Travis seen the Marijuana plant he saw his opportunity to finally disobey his dad. Travis knew his father did not approve of growing and selling marijuana. For one it took business away from him and another it was illegal and could get him in a lot of trouble, which would make his entire family, looked down on. So Travis knew that his father sure would not approve of his own...