Every day, we travel from one place to another via a road. Only if we walk along a road, we can meet the ones we want and then communicate with one another. We walk along some roads frequently; yet, some, seldom; some, never. Our unwillingness and fright can explain our not travelling through those roads though, from the bottom of our heart, we want to walk through them. There’s a certain kind of barrier, different grounds for different people, in our heart preventing us from taking initiative to walk through them. In order to break the ice between two persons; they have to walk together along the road between their hearts. In this essay, I will examine the imagery of road serves as a kind of communication between a father and a son.

Postman is a kind of state official; being a postman has to travel along the roads and delivers letters. The father has taken up the job for life. He loves his job; yet, the pain in his knee deters him from being a postman that needs him to travel a long way. Being a postman, being not at home for a month is commonplace. The father’s delivering mails lets people living in different places communicate with their closest. Thus, better mutual understanding can be achieved. Yet, it is an irony that the father helps others to communicate by walking miles of road; yet, can he help himself communicate with his son whom doesn’t share with him at all?

Both of the father and the son want to walk through the road to each other’ heart; yet, they don’t have time to do it. Being always not at home, he doesn’t have much communication with his son. They don’t understand each other deeply. They estrange from each other. The son’s seldom addressing his father can explain how distant they are. The father’s jealousy towards his son’s calling his wife “mother” frequently can tell us his strong desire to be close to his son and have good relationship with him. Their not having many dialogues at home lets us know they are not close. The son takes up his father’s job and walk along the road that his father gets used to walking.

The father’s accompanying his son to deliver the mails in his first time reveals the father’s love towards his son though they don’t communicate much. In fact, not even the father, the son is jealous of the dog which accompanies his father to send mails every day. He is jealous of their good relationship and their staying with each other every day. This connotes the son’s love towards his father as jealousy usually comes after love. The father follows his son. His feeling contented when he sees his son’s back as he knows that his son is already grown up shows that he loves his son and he is happy to see his son grown up and take up his career. His son’s worrying when his father suddenly disappears is a rigid proof that he cares his father and he loves him. Though both of them love each other, there’s a wall between them. The wall has been built up for nearly twenty years. It can’t be broken easily! It is difficult for them to overcome the barrier in their heart and take the first step on the road.

Both the father and the son don’t know how to take initiative to start the journey to each other’s heart. At the very beginning of their delivering mails, there is nearly no conversation between them. The internal monologues of the son reveals his realizing that they should chat with each other. Yet, he gets no topics to talk about. His father’s always not at home, his feeling distant with his father and his fright towards his father account for his not communicating with his father. Though he missed him, he’s scared of him. The misunderstanding of the son towards his father results from their lack of communication. Thus, it results in argument between the son and the father.

The father and the son start to walk along the road to each other’s heart as their topics grow. The son’s knowing more about the people, say the blind old lady and the young beautiful girl whom his father sends letters to and knows makes him know more about his father. Although the son, sometimes, don’t agree with his father’s view, they can share some topics. The son’s disagreeing his father is largely due to their looking the incident in different angles. They start to overcome the barriers in their heart. Their smiling to each other where it can hardly be seen before symbolizes their taking a big step on the road to have better understanding towards each other.

On the way of delivering letters, the love towards each other touches their hearts. His asking his father to stay out of water and his carrying his father on the back to across the river moves his father and thus, his father cries. The father’s revealing how happy he is when he knows that his son is born lets the son know that his thinking of his father’s not loving him is wrong. It also makes him think about the past where his father was always not at home during festivals. This makes him realize that being a father is tough and he starts to understand his father. His understanding of his father’s love touches his soul and drives him to call his father “Dad” where he rarely calls since he was young. This does surprise his father and it makes his father feel extremely happy and contented. It can been seen that their walking along the road to each other’s heart is successful. They do reach each other’s heart!

The son’s knowing more about his father makes him know that he is depressed because it is the last time he walks along the road to deliver mails. As the barriers on the road between their hearts have been emptied already, the son shares something in his heart with his father. His answering his father honestly when his father asks if he likes the Tong minority girl shows that he no longer hides from his father. He once hid from his father about the scar on his neck but now there are changes due to their communication on the road. The son’s speaking from the bottom of his heart about his not wanting to marry the girl as he doesn’t want her to miss the place that she was born, just as his mother does. Their sharing with each other’s sad feeling when talking about the son’s mother tells us they eventually understand each other. Moreover, their sleeping with each other shows that they are now close to each other. Although the road to each other’s heart is not smooth, they eventually can knock down the barriers on the road and touch each other’s heart.

All in all, the portrayal of the road imagery in this movie is successful. It shows the gradual and natural changes in the father’s and the son’s heart. This movie tells us that communication between parents and kids are important. Only if they communicate with one another, they can understand each other more deeply. Moreover, paternal love is great though hidden. Father is the head of the family and he has authority over each member in a family. He tends to suppress his feeling. He will usually love his wife and children in his heart. We should treasure the love from both our father and mother, as they love us most.

(1261 words)