Before his eyes, Monzon felt himself stripped, one by one, of all his defenses: maturity, social position, wealth, success. He was a little boy again and he bent down and lifted his father's enormous, damp hand to his lips, and at the contact, a million pins seemed to prick his whole body.
-- Narrator (Three Generations paragraph 80)

Importance: This story focuses on the dynamics between fathers and sons. This scene shows how these roles can sometimes feel immutable to the men occupying them, as even though Celo Monzon is now a father himself, successful in ways that his father never was, he is nonetheless reduced to the helpless boy he once was under his father's control. This story explores how some aspects of lineage can facilitate growth, progress, and achievement, while other patterns are much more difficult, if not virtually impossible, to break. In this case, the compulsory shift toward subservience, fear, and timidness in Celo...