In the short tory “Diving into Waters of the Moon” written by Ken neth Radu, Daniel’s parents are hypocritical and self-involved people who love themselves only; they ignore their family members emotions although their family members need warmth and support from them. Daniel’s parents, Calvin and Jewel, are hypocritical people. Daniel’s parents pretend to make “a lot of hard decisions” (3). However, the “hard decisions” are not hard to make. Instead, they have planned these decisions on purpose to get a fortune.
Calvin and Jewel made a hard decision” to persuade Daniel’s grandmother to move to a nursing home. As a result, Calvin successfully “convinced her to relinquish control of a surprisingly large financial portfolio to her son” (3). Calvin finally got a good fortune from his mother which gives him a great benefit by selling his mother’s house and managing her accounts and investments even if “after deducting the cost of her maintenance and his related expenses” (3). For Daniel’s sister s death, Calvin and Jewel “lamented” (3) for deciding not to proceed with another operation to save her life.
However, when they tell Daniel about his sister’ s death, “their faces flushed from exertion and relief, the way they always looked after completing strenuous tasks like house- cleaning or sex on Sunday morning”. The facial emotions show that they have decided not to take such a heavy burden even if it is their daughter. The relief of their daughter ‘s life is a kind of thing like doing house-cleaning or sex. Jewel calls Daniel “buddy”; she “hugged him in front of his friends” (4). In contrary, she ignores the mails attention to Denial’s name; she never cares hich university her son will be accepted.
These double-side behaviors indicate thatJewel is a fake person. Daniel’s parents are self-involved people. Jewel does not pay attention to the other s opinions or interests. She “insisted that she knew what she knew and no one could convince her otherwise” (4). Jewel is against science although Daniel loves science so much, so Jewel tells Daniel that ‘”‘science was not the sum total of human knowledge” (4). She takes care of her image instead of taking care of her son. She keep good fit; she wear navy track suit to show that she is a sport lover, lthough she “never jogged, jumped, threw, hurled, skated, or wrestled” (4).
However, she never pays attention to what her son’s interest is, even if pretends to pay attention. Her image is such an important thing that she pretends to act as a professional in a certain field. For Calvin birthday gift, Jewel asks Daniel s suggestion; however, she insisted to buy an electronic keyboard instead of a toupee which was suggested by Daniel. That means, she does not care about Daniel s suggestion; she only cares her own opinion. To ask DanieFs suggestion is her hypocritical respect to her son.
When Jewel drives, “twice she ignored STOP signs” (6). Jewel even doesn’t care about the traffic rules. She does not feel any sorrow or shame. She ignores the rules on purpose; she drives on her own way without following any rules. Jewel is a kind of person who respects herself only. Nothing else is more important than her. Daniel’s parents ignore the family members’ emotions although they need warmth and support from them. When Calvin persuades his mother to move to the nursing home, his mother “seemed to be suffering a lot’ (3).
She ‘talked about the quality of life, human dignity, and how horrible it was for them all to experience her misery” (3). Although the lady is old, she is still conscious enough to notice her life quality and dignity. She needs his son’s care and warmth. However, the only thing Calvin is eager to obtain is money. Calvin said “l can’t stand to see her like that, she shouldn’t have to suffer” (3). He ignores his mother’s emotion and life completely; he is cold- hearted and never thinks about his mother’s life. The old lady’s survival cannot depend on Calvin any longer.
In contrast, Daniel still remembers his grandma’s warm house which gives him good memories and the sense of family warmth. As young man, Daniel needs the family warmth. Daniel once suggested his parents to take grandmother back home, while “Jewel looked at him as if she had just witnessed an alien stepping out of its spacecraft” (4). Jewel is cold-hearted too and never takes care of the others’ emotion. She has “placed her brains in deep freeze” (4). Daniel has to talk with the lizards. He names one lizard as “Jewel” so that he can pretend to talk with his mother.
Daniel wondered if his parents would really miss him when he left home” (6). Daniel is lack of parents’ love, he is ignored by his parents completely. Neither grandmother nor Daniel can get any warmth from Calvin and Jewel. Above all, Daniel’s parents do not take any responsibility to take care Of their family members. They ignore all the family member’s life and emotions. They chase their own happiness and wealth. It is clear that Daniel’s parents’ hypocritical behaviors hurt their family members deeply and this is the reason why Daniel decides to leave home alone and perhaps never come back.
