1 day ago
7
Hello Reddit. I'm inquiring about what a majority of people think about the relationship between the characters Stephen and Leka is in "The Glass Roses", a short story by Alden Nowlan. I read it recently and honestly enjoyed it very much. I felt like I understood everything Nowlan was attempting to say about parental expectations, masculinity, idenity and such. However I found that I wasn't really able to definitively decide what kind of relationship that Stephen and Leka had, most likely because I am simply not as knowledgeable on social nuances.
Are they meant to be brothers? Is it something romantic? Leka is written as a foil to the influence of Stephen's father however there are no other connections other than that that would lead me to believe he is a father figure for Stephen. And yes, Stephen is 15 in the story and Leka is presumably somewhat older. However, it says in the story he was 12 years old when the Germans came to Ternopil in 1941 which would make him plausibly 16-17 after immigrating to Canada, and how old he is at the time of the text depends on the exact date the story takes place which I haven't found a source for. Personally I feel that Stephen acts somewhat bashful around Leka and they are generally affectionate which makes it plausible in my eyes but hey, I might just be weird. And finally, I feel that they are too close to just have a mentor/protege kind of relationship as is the safest answer.
I have be pretty curious about this for quite some time but not many people I know have read it and can have this discussion. If you haven't, you definitely should as it's around 10 pages and free on Google. So what are your opinions?
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