The False Moon Written by Shirley Golden

The short story “The False Moon” written by Shirley Golden is about the young boy, Matt, who is having trouble dealing with his family life. He is experiencing an unnatural part of his youth due to not having help choosing a path of life. This is because of the absence of his parents. This story ultimately shows how the absence of parents and their parenting can affect a child. The short story gives a unique view of Matt’s behavior, which is the outcome of parental neglection, and how he deals with life.

The main character of the story is Matt. He lives alone with his mother who does not really pay very much attention to him. He is a teenage boy, taking accountancy in his actions and that his friends have a curfew. He describes himself as skinny and lanky with girlish characteristics. Matt has a difficult time going to school and socializing with the others in his class. This is partially also because of his jealousy towards the other classmates considering their parents care about them, as well as an embarrassment because Matt’s mother does not care for him; “I hadn’t shown her the sealed letter school instructed me to give to her. Instead I returned as if I’d been forced back, as if she read it, and gave a shit” (line 27). As can be seen in the quote, Matt does not want to portray himself as the kid who gets no attention from his mother. Matt’s character development is strongly expressed in how he learns to make his own decisions; “Never mind, soon you’ll be fending for yourself, much better” (line 70). His mother predicts that he will be able to handle himself at the teenage age, which Matt is in. This way of parenting makes him reckless, but it accelerates his independence from his mother.

He goes from being a young boy who is astray from the path of an average teen to being able to find his own paths and guidelines. He absolutely achieves self-realization in this short story and becomes able to decipher between choices, good or bad, influenced by no other than himself. Matt becomes mature and more like an adult; “I’ll choose my own route, find my own path; even in the dark” (line 149). He becomes unbound of his mother and their bad relationship even though he has been led astray by a “False Moon”. He is no longer an insect that needs guidance while in the dark but instead, he guides himself now. Matt is no longer a child.

The relationship that Matt has with his mother is quite complicated. There has been hinted multiple times that the mother is an alcoholic. She is more focused on her boyfriend, Dan, than on Matt. In the story there is no father to support Matt and the family, therefore the mother is responsible for the entire parenting, dad and mom role. The mother is also absent from all the parenting and this leaves Matt with no proper role model. His mother shows him no attention and doesn’t really care about him. This makes