Milk Mug-shots

Carlson's Milk was an interesting story. Written in 1st person narrative, it tells the story of fatherhood. We get insight in the father's love for his children and also his insecurities. The story immediately dives into the plot, beginning with what is plaguing the father's mind; fingerprinting his children. However, it is obviously not the fingerprinting itself that he is against but the idea of having to face what would happen if they ever needed to use them; he finally would exlaim to his wife that it was because "they were used to identify dead bodies."

Carlson took his father character through several scenes and aspects of life in order to portray more and more of the father's inner fear of his children being missing. The title, "Milk," alludes to the milk carton in the family's refrigerator, which had photos of missing children on the back. The father's reaction to these pictures gives us a sense of how the whole situation is really affecting him, that it's not something trivial but something deeper going on within him. He begins to see "missing persons" everywhere, and since the story is in 1st person, we, as reader, are permitted to hear his thoughts and begin to understand how it is haunting him and empathize with his struggle. If Carlson would have written it any other way, it would not have had nearly the same effect.

When he takes the twins at the end, without telling his wife or his mother, and the whole scene about "Namma" and the Lion King song, really portrays the love he has for his children, and how that love can lead to a crippling, unrelentless fear of losing them..