YA Essay

Dead Father’s Club Essay

Xavier Markowitz

808

When Philip Noble’s father dies, he is left very confused. He becomes even more confused when he starts seeing his father around the family owned pub. In the book Dead Father’s Club by Matt Haig, Philip has to make some difficult choices. While talking to his father, Philip learns that it was Uncle Alan who killed him. This seems strange, because Uncle Allen has been being very nice to his mom. During this time Philip has many interactions with his dad’s ghost. Some of these can be negative and some of them are positive. Philip’s trust in his father changes throughout the book, depending on what the father does.

When the dad helps Philip, Philip trusts him more. During Halloween, Philip, Ross, and Gary, who are Philips friends, put a stink bomb in Terry’s house. Terry is Uncle Alan's friend. The father tries to help Philip run away but Terry catches up. Then the father instructs him to tell Terry that Philip, “knows who he is, He knows he smashed the pub, and he knows he works for Uncle Alan.” This freaks Terry out and he runs away. This makes Philip appreciate the dad for helping him get out of a tough situation. Also Philips father predicted that a group people will try to smash the pub, which is the family business. The problem was that he predicted the break in one month too early. When they do break into the pub, the dad tells him to scream When he does it,  the thieves are scared away. Philip now trusts his father more. Philip even says, “I am going to believe in dads ghost from now on.” When his dad helps him, Philip trusts his dad more.

Philips father also messes up sometimes and this makes Philip upset. He then trusts the dad less because of this. This happens when the father tells Philip to steal a minibus while on a class trip so he can go to the pub to stop it from being smashed by the intruders. The father accidentally gets the dates wrong though and philip steals the minibus for no reason. Philip then feels that his father lied to him. He is upset at the fact that his all knowing father is not that perfect. Philip also gets very upset with his father when he tells him to set fire to the garage where Uncle Alan works, with him inside it. This plan backfires when it turns out that Uncle Alan’s friend was in the garage at the time. This makes Philip feel guilty and he takes it out on his dad. He pushes his dad away and ignores him. These are some examples of the dad hurting Philip.

The father helps and hurts Philip. When he helps Philip, Philip trusts and likes him more. When he hurts Philip, Philip pushes him away. What the father does affects how his son feels about him. This shows how other people’s actions can affect our own life.