Life Essay, Research Paper

Unhealthy Relationships The Princess Bride by S. Morgenstern and abridged by William Goldman is a fairy tale about true love and adventure. This story brings to light many social issues. I feel the most known social issue in the book is unhealthy relationships. I will show in this paper that William Goldman’s Family has the same problems as my Family regarding unhealthy relationships. William Goldman the writer of the abridged version of The Princess Bride is having a tough time with his wife, Helen, and his ten-year-old son, Jason. For my family the roles are switched. My mom is very unhappy with my step dad, and my step dad and real dad are upset with me. In Goldman’s case he likes another woman named Sandy Sterling. Repeatedly in the novel he refers to Sandy Sterling and how beautiful she is. In one instance he is talking to Helen on the phone and Sandy Sterling is in the pool. He tells his wife Helen he is in a very important conference when he is really with Sandy. William Goldman is married to Helen but Sandy does not care she still likes him. William thinks that his abridgment is the more important than his failing marriage. When William comes back from his conference in California he immediately attacks his child Jason. He tells Jason how fat and overweight he is. I can imagine how Jason feels since he is only ten. Ever since my mom has been married she has not been happy. My step dad is like Goldman in many ways. He often made fun of me when I was little for very stupid reasons, I think to just get me rallied up. I never did anything to provoke him into making fun of me. My step dad also liked a coworker of his for a while. When my mom married him I was five, I was close to him then. As I got older, I began to not talk to him. Maybe that is why he made fun of me, he wanted me to talk to him. As of this moment my mom is getting divorced from him. My mom is on her second divorce at this very moment. Her first marriage did not work out because she was young and still in college. She went to VA Tech and so did my real dad. I lived here until I was two and then we moved to Fairfax County. She got a divorce from him on Mothers Day in 1982.William Goldman has some issues to discuss with his wife about how to raise Jason. Ever since Jason was little he was not a slender boy. Goldman never accepted Jason’s weight problem. Everyone in general should love their children no matter what they are like. Goldman used several names to emphasize how big his child is. Some words he used to describe his son were overweight, poof, balloon, sumo wrestler, and worst of all Goldman said his son Jason could roll faster than he could walk. Goldman will not accept that Jason is not into sports like he was at his age. Goldman was a jock at a young age and Jason is not interested in sports. Jason is now interested in rockets like any young boy is. Jason does not care about his looks he is only ten.Both of my dads made fun of me. When I was little I was overweight and my dad’s called me names. I was blimp to my real dad and big stuff to my step dad. I did not think they realized how I was effected. When I was in second grade I was still overweight. I would come home crying because I was made fun of at school and when I got in the door I was made fun of there also. I had a lot of friends even though I was bigger than they were. I lost the weight by fifth grade and my dads’ stopped teasing me. I told them when I was skinny how much they hurt my feelings but they did not care. My fathers’ never had feelings for me. Since I am in college now my dads’ and I rarely talk. My mom says my step dad loves me but he does not know how to show it. He has had eighteen years to try to show me he cared but he never tried. My real dad is coming around now. He is remarried and has another daughter named Laurel. My real dad told my sister Laurel we were not related and I was just a friend of the family. Till this day she has no clue we are related. Eventually I think everything will get better in my old age.

Goldman’s life with his wife is on the rocks now. While Goldman was on a buisness trip he met a woman names Sandy Sterling. In order to impress her Goldman swam eighteen labs in the pool where Sandy was. All of a sudden she swam to him and asked him if he was William Goldman the author of her favorite book The Stepford Wives. Goldman was indeed the author of the book. Sandy told Goldman she wanted to be in the screenplay of the movie. Of course Goldman was thinking about it when his wife called on the phone. Goldman made up a phony excuse so he would not have to talk to her on the phone. Goldman told Helen he was in a very important conference and would call her back. In reality he did not want to talk to her because he did not want Sandy to know he was married. Goldman thought sandy was gorgeous, and understanding an unbeatable combination in his eyes. He thought his wife Helen just tormented him about his neuroses too much.In my family my mother, Marianne, is not happy with her current husband, Ivars. I can understand that, he never does anything around the house, he always is making fun of me, my sister Allison and my mom. He does not know how he effects us. My mom met Ivars when I was three. My mom and him worked in the same Patent office building. They fell in love and were married when I was five. They were happy until his mood changed. He started making fun of me and my mom did not like it one bit. She threatened him saying she was going to leave him but he always said he was sorry. She believed him. When I was ten my sister Allison was born. He was so happy with her, he forgot about me. He became close with her and left me behind. I was old enough at the time to not care about him anymore. As my sister and were getting older he stopped helping around the house and just sat in the house all day. He never did any work in the house. He sat in the house drinking beer and going out with his friends and not helping around the house. When I was in high school I found out my mom was sleeping another man. His name was Rick. I met Rick and he was a cool guy. It did not matter to me that she found someone else. As long as she was happy I was happy for her. When I was in eighteen my sister Colleen was born. Rick was her father. My step dad was not very happy but he forgave my mom. I thought that was weird but I think he had no where else to go. So I think he stayed with my mom so he could have someone. When I went off to college my mom told me she was finally getting a divorce from my step dad. I was really happy for her. The divorce is final in April. My mom bought a new townhouse in Fairfax County. We are moving in it in April. I am looking forward to that. Rick and my mom are together now. Colleen will grow up with two parents who love her now. She will not have to deal with a crummy life like mine.The results will be severe for both Williams Goldman’s Family and mine. The results are already showing for my family but William Goldman’s family is going to break apart in many ways. I think William Goldman will eventually get a divorce from his wife and Jason, William’s son will end up hating his father for calling him names. For my family my mom is getting her second divorce and moving out of the house we have lived in for fifteen years. I am going to miss my house but I think is it for the best that we are moving out.