ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the charge against the father. As the alienated student saw it, and he joins the disdain of the mother, the father's sins were threefold. First he was a sell-out, a phony, a man not to be admired. Second he abandoned the family, removing himself physically and psychologically. Third he was responsible for the limitations imposed on the mother, which were reflected in her terrible unhappiness. Returning more fully to the idea of the Sin of the Father, though, the authors can see that there is a problem with this explanation. The attack upon the father is the point at which feminism and postmodernism come together. Typically called the patriarch, the rule of the father is seen as the most long-lived and pervasive structure of oppression. The father gave up his early ideals and settled into a career that would enable him to make as much money as possible.
