Character sketch of father in his first flight
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The story “His First Flight” by “Liam O’ Flaherty” is about a young seagull who is afraid to fly. All his younger siblings despite their much shorter wings flew fearlessly while he could not gather the courage to trust his own wings. The young seagull became sad when he saw his parents perfecting his younger siblings in the art of flying. His parents scold and taunt him for not even trying. They even call him a “coward”. They tell him a lot to at least try and also threaten him to leave him alone and hungry if he does not. The following day, he is left in isolation and upon feeling hungry; he tries to seek the attention of his family members. Only his mother, who is withering a fish in an attempt to eat it, notices his son. The young seagull cries out of starvation hoping his mother would help. On seeing his mother come to him with the fish, he gets excited. But on noticing that his mother stopped mid-way, he gets maddened out of hunger and takes a dive at the fish, forgetting for a moment that he is afraid to fly. Finally, he took his first flight. All the family members celebrate his victory by cheering and dancing around him. He also attempts at floating in the sea that he was once afraid of. Thus, he overcomes his fear and realises that it is all in the mind.THE young seagull was alone on his ledge. His two brothers and his sister had already flown away the day before. He had been afraid to fly with them. Somehow when he had taken a little run forward to the brink of the ledge and attempted to flap his wings he became afraid. The great expanse of sea stretched down beneath, and it was such a long way down — miles down. He felt certain that his wings would never support him; so he bent his head and ran away back to the little hole under the ledge where he slept at night.Even when each of his brothers and his little sister, whose wings were far shorter than his own, ran to the brink, flapped their wings, and flew away, he failed to muster up courage to take that plunge which appeared to him so desperate. His father and mother had come around calling to him shrilly, upbraiding him, threatening to let him starve on his ledge unless he flew away. But for the life of him he could not move.That was twenty-four hours ago. Since then nobody had come near him. The day before, all day long, he had watched his parents flying about with his brothers and sister, perfecting them in the art of flight, teaching them how to skim the waves and how to dive for fish. He had, in fact, seen his older brother catch his first herring and devour it, standing on a rock, while his parents circled around raising a proud cackle. And all the morning the whole family had walked about on the big plateau midway down the opposite cliff taunting him with his cowardice.The sun was now ascending the sky, blazing on his ledge that faced the south. He felt the heat because he had not eaten since the previous nightfall. He stepped slowly out to the brink of the ledge, and standing on one leg with the other leg hidden under his wing, he closed one eye, then the other, and pretended to be falling asleep. Still they took no notice of him. He saw his two brothers and his sister lying on the plateau dozing with their heads sunk into their necks. His father was preening the feathers on his white back. Only his mother was looking at him. She was standing on a little high hump on the plateau, her white breast thrust forward. Now and again, she tore at a piece of fish that lay at her feet and then scrapped each side of her beak on the rock. The sight of the food maddened him. How he loved to tear food that way, scrapping his beak now and again to whet it.
Ascending the sky- the act of rising up through the air
Preening-to tidy and clean its feathers
Hump- a rounded raised mass of earth or land
Scrapped- discard
The sun had now risen and he was feeling the heat more than ever because he was empty-stomach since the night before. He stepped out of his ledge and pretended to sleep on one leg to gain the attention of his family. Still, no one noticed him. His siblings were sleeping, his father was cleaning his feathers with his beak and his mother was standing on another plateau eating fish while she noticed him. The seagull got mad on seeing the fish because he was very hungry. He loved to tear away fish and scrape his beak now and then.
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