4 Stories About the Generation Gap

Ann Beattie's 'The Stroke'

The father and mother in Ann Beattie's "The Stroke," as the mother observes, "love to bitch at each other." Their grown children have come to visit, and the two parents are in their bedroom, complaining about their kids. When they're not complaining about their kids, they're complaining about the unpleasant ways in which the kids have taken after the other parent. Or they're complaining that the other parent is complaining too much. Or they're complaining about how critical their children are of them.

But as petty (and often funny) as these arguments seem, Beattie also manages to show a much deeper side to her characters, demonstrating how little we really understand the people closest to us.

Alice Walker's 'Everyday Use'

The two sisters in Alice Walker's 'Everyday Use,' Maggie and Dee, have very different relationships with their mother. Maggie, who still lives at home, respects her mother and carries on the traditions of the family. For instance, she knows how to quilt, and she also knows the stories behind the fabrics in the family's heirloom quilts.

So Maggie is the exception to the generation gap so often represented in literature. Dee, on the other hand, seems its archetype. She is enamored of her new-found cultural identity and convinced that her understanding of her heritage is superior to and more sophisticated than her mother's. She treats her mother's (and sister's) life like an exhibit in a museum, one better understood by the astute curator than by the participants themselves.

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Francis Bacon: "Of Parents and Children"

By Richard Nordquist

Katherine Anne Porter's 'The Jilting of Granny Weatherall'

As Granny Weatherall approaches death, she finds herself annoyed and frustrated that her daughter, the doctor, and even the priest treat her as if she's invisible. They patronize her, ignore her, and make decisions without consulting her. The more they condescend to her, the more she exaggerates and insults their youth and inexperience.

She considers the doctor as "pudgy," a word often reserved for children, and she thinks, "The brat ought to be in knee britches." She relishes the thought that one day, her daughter will be old and have children of her own children to whisper behind her back.

Ironically, Granny ends up acting like a petulant child, but given that the doctor keeps calling her "Missy" and telling her to "be a good girl," a reader can hardly blame her.   

Christine Wilks' 'Tailspin'

Unlike the other stories on this list, Christine Wilks' "Tailspin" is a work of electronic literature. It uses not just written text, but also images and audio. Instead of turning pages, you use your mouse to navigate through the story. (That alone smacks of a generation gap, doesn't it?)

The story focuses on George, a grandfather who's hard of hearing. He clashes endlessly with his daughter over the question of a hearing aid, he constantly snaps at his grandchildren over their noise, and he generally feels left out of conversations. The story does a brilliant job of sympathetically representing multiple points of view, past and present.