The American Family

Just picture the typical American family going on a short trip to grandma's house. Do you see dad in the driver's seat, mom on the passenger's side, and the kids in the back? What about an old red station wagon? One might picture a father who is a little too nerdy for his own good; a mother who is calm, cool, and collected and maybe just a little too pretty for the dad. If the picture in your head is not the Brady family children singing, "The Wheels on the Bus," you may actually hear the little brats screaming, "Are we there yet!" Then the father, with his trousers pulled up too high for anyone to be comfortable, spits out a joke that cannot really be considered a joke at all. Quite possibly the children would sigh and the courteous mother would giggle a little under her breath. This could be a typical portrayal of an American Family road trip. We defiantly did not need a Dennis the Menace comic strip to play this one out for us, but somehow Hank Ketchham hits it right on the head with Dennis the Menace, "Fast Asleep."

In Dennis the Menace "Fast Asleep," the cartoonist displays a family including a father mother and child, Dennis on a road trip. The young child who shows obvious boredom asks to sit up front. The father denies the request and says it's against the law. The father shows satisfaction with the fact that he has a good reason for saying no. Unsatisfied and still bored, the little boy, Dennis yells out the wonderfully predictable line "Are we there yet?!" The father makes the insightful comment of, "How can we be there if we are here?" And as funny as it may seem (HaHa) Dennis does not understand. The mother then tells the Dennis that he should take a nap, because the trip would go a whole lot faster if he were asleep. And the brilliant ending to the strip is Dennis saying," How come? Does dad start speeding?"

The author Hank Ketcham began the comic strip by illustrating that the father was happy to have a reason for saying no. In my opinion this is a wonderful example of American children's blatant disregard for his or her elders reasoning. From my own experience with friends with Latino and Korean backgrounds, American children do not show the same respect to their elders as do the children from other cultural upbringings. American children always want to know why they are being told no, instead of accepting it as is.

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