Bert's Eulogy

The tearful eulogy that Frank delivers at his father’s funeral symbolizes Frank’s genuine confusion over the identity of his father and his uncertainty over how to handle emotionally the legacy of his father’s abuse. A eulogy is conventionally a summary of a person’s life and what it meant to those who survive. Frank as an investigative journalist believes that facts, carefully observed and honestly recorded, will provide the reassuring certainty of clear sight and truthful conclusions. In his eulogy Frank recounts when he and his father, then retired and living in Florida, visited an off-track horse racing betting parlor. When a large and belligerent bettor keeps blocking the screen showing the races, Frank shouts to sit his “fat ass” (248) down. The man charges at Frank and Bert intervenes. “Go back to your chair, you goddamned bully. Leave my son alone. You...