The whole reason the narrator is in his predicament is because he simply couldn't abdicate control he had to trim that one 'errant' branch, and it led to his herniated disc (81).The narrator's wife calls him a control freak, and while the narrator is 'genuinely shocked' (84), Claire is quick to point out his peculiar choice of spot to lie on his back all day: in the middle of the living room.

In 'Like a House on Fire,' for example, Kennedy heavily emphasizes the idea of control. Of course, when someone is dependent on another person or on a structure or institution, they at least partially lack agency and control but Kennedy's stories pay special attention to how one loses and attains, retains, and/or attempts to regain agency. Agency and ControlĬlosely related to the theme of dependence is that of agency and control. His lack of independence puts so much power in the hands of strangers, like the narrator of the story, who finds herself in a position to change a man's life simply by virtue of her ability to push a wheelchair and purchase cigarettes. Moreton is fully dependent on the people around him. Dependence can bring out the best in people, qualities that they hadn't even known themselves to possess. On the other hand, Kennedy shows how dependence can also allow for grace and, in turn, kindness and generosity. Here, Claire denies the narrator claim to the full share of suffering, despite the fact that he's the one with the injury. Why would you put us all through this?' (85). She tells him that when requests come 'from someone lying flat on their back in the middle of a busy family room, it morphs pretty quickly into orders' (84), and when he insists that he's not faking the injury, and that it's not all in his head, she says, 'I'm not saying you're faking it, for crying out loud. The narrator emphasizes how his humiliation and the indignities of not being able to do things for himself cause further humiliation when his wife, Claire, struggles to remain measured in the course of caring for him. In 'Like a House on Fire,' Kennedy shows how the burden of dependence goes both ways.

Kennedy seizes on the potential of dependence to change the dynamics of relationships. Ray depends upon the generosity of his friends after Sharon casts him out of their house, and he stays in a shed. Jason is dependent on Michelle because he's a newborn, and Michelle finds that she is not as dependent on the midwives and Des as she once thought. In the case of the narrator of the titular story, the event is his herniated disc. In Frank's case, the event was a vehicle accident. Kennedy's characters rarely relish their dependence, though none naturally despise it more than Frank, husband of the protagonist of 'Flexion.' In Like a House on Fire, the dependence is generally brought on by some medical event. In several of the stories in the collection, Kennedy explores the concept of dependence and how it shapes her characters' relationships.

Like a house on fire by cate kennedy