900 words on FSB

Bret Lott spends much of Fathers, Sons, and Brothers: The Men in My Family going from stories of his childhood, and images of his brothers and father, to images of his sons and himself. He begins with an image comparison of his garage to his father’s garage (when they had one). He continues throughout the book, going from past to more recent/present images, comparing, both directly and indirectly. He is using the stories of his childhood to relay his fears for his own sons, their relationship, and their lives. 

You first really begin to see this in the essay Brothers. In this essay, Lott begins with a story of he and his older brother at their grandparent’s pool. His brother pinches him, and Brett cries. Lott then speaks of a picture of he and his brother six months after his wedding, they are smiling and happy. He says "That pinch was entry into our childhood; my arm around him, our smiling, is proof of us two surfacing, alive but not unscathed." (32) Lott and his brother are not close, as he shows with the story of showing Zeb the picture of him and his brother. That fighting between Lott and his brother, even before he can truly remember, is a representation of their childhood and teenage relationship. His stories of his sons fighting, Zeb accidentally hitting Jacob, Zeb's hand caught in the van door, represents the similarities between the two generations relationships.

He fears his son’s relationship will end up like the one he and his brother have. You can see this when he's ending the scene where he's showing Zeb the picture, he writes "But I was thinking of my question: Who's the other guy? and the truth of his answer: I don't know." (30).  He's almost lamenting the distance between his brother and himself. He makes mention of the distance between them throughout the book in several ways; the many times Brad runs away, the distance between them as adults (physical and mental), and times like when Brad watches Lynn beat him up. 

In the essay "Allegiance", Lott tells us how he was blindly allegiant to his brother as a child. He uses the story of the first time his brother Brad runs away to show this. Brad tells him where he's going before he leaves, but makes Bret swear to not tell. Brett swears and never once tells where Brad went. He fears his sons will be the same way, and we see this fear when later in "Allegiance", he writes ""Jake, don't tell dad," Zeb whispered, and it seemed Swear to god you won't tell ought to be the next words I would hear." (163). This scene of him mentally connecting his sons to his childhood clarifies his fear of them ending up like he and his brothers. He rushes into the room after hearing Zeb say that, and it turns out it was nothing major, and he was over-reacting.         

In the essay "Allegiance", Lott tells us how he was blindly allegiant to his brother as a child. He uses the story of the first time his brother Brad runs away to show this. Brad tells him where he's going before he leaves, but makes Bret swear to not tell. Brett swears and never once tells where Brad went. He fears his sons will be the same way, and we see this fear when later in "Allegiance", he writes ""Jake, don't tell dad," Zeb whispered, and it seemed Swear to god you won't tell ought to be the next words I would hear." (163). This scene of him mentally connecting his sons to his childhood clarifies his fear of them ending up like he and his brothers. He rushes into the room after hearing Zeb say that, and it turns out it was nothing major, and he was over-reacting. He is so afraid his sons will be like he and his brother he even says later:

"I realize now, with Jacob's sleepwalking to his brother's room, with that small sentence banged into a manual typewriter, with his measuring his entire world against only his brother, Jacob is me, just trying to make my way in the wake, for better or worse, of big brother Brad." (160).

No one is just like their parents, and sure Jacob may be like Lott was at his age, in that he looks up to his older brother, but what little sibling doesn't look up to their older sibling? Lott seems blind at some points to that simple fact, this passage is one of them. 

In some places Lott sees that his sons are not exactly like he and his brothers, like when he talks about hurricane Hugo and how Zeb and Jake each handle it. Zeb is not obvious about it bothering him, nor does he show his parents his book about the disaster until it is finished, and then he never mentions it again. Jake however, takes a full year to get over it, by drawing picture after picture of black cyclones.(117-137) He and his brothers never went through anything like that, so there is nothing to compare those experiences with in his childhood. By showing us this difference its like he's trying to comfort himself with the knowledge that this event makes his sons different from himself and his brothers.  

Lott shows us his fears by comparing his childhood with his brothers to his children's childhoods so far. He does not want his kids to have the same relationship he and his brothers have. At times this fear is so strong he over reacts. At others he sees that his kids are not the same as he and his brothers.