Dysfunctional family relationships form the basis of many Canadian short stories. Often, tragedy is the end result of severe family breakdown. In other cases, personality defects are directly traceable to poor family dynamics. In the stories “Hurt”, “Fall of a City”, and “The Sound of Hollyhocks” there were very profound family problems. The difficulty in the father/son relationship in “Hurt” reflects a role reversal. Even though Stevie is only a young boy, he took …showed first 75 words of 866 total…

…showed last 75 words of 866 total…factors which contribute to the breakdown of the relationships in these stories. Such factors include alcoholism in “Hurt”, suspicion in “Fall of a City” and control in “The Sound of Hollyhocks”. The reality of such relationships make the stories more interesting, thought-provoking, and entertaining in a tragic sense. Perhaps the reader can learn by experiencing the angst of these characters and can try to identify trouble spots in personal relationships before it is too late.