Man, Woman and Boy by Stephen Dixon
"Man, Woman and Boy" by Stephen Dixon explores the intricacies of domestic life through the lens of a married couple navigating a tense moment in their relationship. The narrative begins with an imagined argument over household responsibilities, reflecting deeper issues surrounding their marriage and parenting. As the husband and wife engage in a silent battle over chores and the well-being of their son, the husband's internal monologue reveals the layers of his frustration and love for his wife.
The story intricately weaves together memories from significant moments in their relationship, including their son's birth and earlier conflicts in their marriage, which illuminate the dynamics of their intimacy and struggles. Ultimately, the husband's recollections lead him to a place of gratitude for his family's current state, contrasting past turmoil with present contentment. The ending encapsulates his acknowledgment of love and fulfillment, presenting a nuanced view of marital life that encompasses both conflict and deep emotional connection. This exploration of love, memory, and domesticity invites readers to reflect on their own relationships and the complexities that often lie beneath the surface.
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Man, Woman and Boy by Stephen Dixon
First published: 1992
Type of plot: Impressionistic
Time of work: The late twentieth century
Locale: Somewhere in the United States
Principal Characters:
An unnamed man His wife Their son
The Story
An unnamed husband and wife are in the middle of a fierce domestic battle that threatens to break up the family and lead to the dividing up of household items. Both parents are concerned with what will become of their son after they divorce. The scene turns out to be an imagined one, however, as both parents are merely reading quietly as their son works on a puzzle.
At times, the husband and wife argue over the division of domestic duties such as cleaning, dusting, and cooking. Because the wife works as a teacher and spends much of her time correcting papers, the house sometimes appears chaotic, a condition that her husband frequently mentions. He is highly concerned with order and the responsibility and division of domestic duties; he would like his wife to work on these periodically—that is, in a scheduled way. Their quarrel over dividing up duties leads him into an obsessive attempt to remember the origins of his concern over her sloppiness. As the narrative moves back several hours to a scene in which the wife promises to try harder to be neat, his memory again forces him to account for why he has taken her to task for her failures as a housewife. He admits that he has taken it out on her because of something that happened at work that has been bothering him all day. Not content with that explanation, he traces his resentment even further back to the early hours of the morning, when he wanted to have sex and she complained that she was too tired.
Not satisfied with the sexual explanation, the husband delves back still further into earlier conflicts over his wife's accusation that he is too quick sexually, a situation that leaves her frustrated. Interwoven throughout his relentless memory tracings, the husband constantly declares his love for his wife and admits that their sex life is, most of the time, very fulfilling.
The husband's memory then returns to the exciting sex they had the previous night, and from there back to his son's birth, then to when he and his wife met. His memory's almost autonomic regressive system then takes over as he recalls his first girlfriends in grade school; his parents' violent domestic squabbles—in which he, like his own son, asked them to stop; and finally to the womb experience itself, in which he remembers his father and mother screaming: "Filthy rotten bitch." "And you. Stupid, cheap, pigheaded, a pill. Get lost. I hate your guts." The disturbing flood of memories returns the husband to the present and creates within him feelings of deep gratitude for what he is presently experiencing—a loving wife and a sweet son.
Later there is an interior monologue in which the husband is preparing himself to make love with his wife, followed by his satisfied washing up after their lovemaking. It is crucial, though, for him to say to himself that he loves his wife and that he consciously admits to himself—for only words make it real—that he has a happy life. The story concludes as he surveys his memory for anything else to surface and, finding nothing, gratefully falls asleep.