Dysfunctional family relationships form the basis of many Canadian short stories. Often, tragedy is the end result of severe family breakdown. In other cases, personality defects are directly traceable to poor family dynamics. In the stories “Hurt”, “Fall of a City”, and “The Sound of Hollyhocks” there were very profound family problems. The difficulty in the father/son relationship in “Hurt” reflects a role reversal. Even though Stevie is only a young boy, he took care of himself and his father. Stevie made his own m ....