Vacation '58

John Hughes story of a disastrous family vacation was my favorite story so far from the semester. He was able to capture the irony of most family vacations almost perfectly. Even though vacations are meant to be a chance to relax and have a little fun, family vacations can often have the opposite effect. Many of the most memorable experiences of my childhood occurred on family vacations, both good and bad.  Hughes story started out relatable, as the Griswolds suffered several everyday setbacks. The car was having trouble, Mrs. Griswold might have left the oven on, and of course everyone was hungry or had to go to the bathroom. This average beginning sets up his readers nicely for the rest of the story. Just as they start to compare their own vacation nightmares to those in the story, things go ridiculously downhill in a hurry. Hughes employs exaggeration to really drive home the idea of a disaster vacation.

The situations become worse and worse and so does Clark Griswolds ability to handle them. By the time they have reached California he has robbed a motel, left a relative for dead, and outrun the police. One of the funniest things about Clark’s behavior is the disconnect between his actions and his words. He continues to say positive things about the vacation and remark about how well everything is going even though his decisions become more violent and reckless as the story progresses. Some of my favorite parts of the story are the small glimpses of optimism Hughes puts into the story such as “a glorious desert sunset bathed the tow truck.” I was also particularly amused with the family’s visit to Joshua Tree National Park. Clark makes the family get out of the car and gives them the grand tour. He just says “See…that’s a Joshua tree” and they all get back in the car and continue down the road.

The exaggeration and action reaches a peak when Clark absolutely goes crazy and shoots Walt Disney. It had been foreshadowed at the beginning of the story but I was reluctant to believe it at the beginning. I think the superiority theory could also help explain why this story is so funny. First it makes us think of our own disaster vacations then proceeds to show us things could have been worse, a lot worse. We can now laugh at our own vacations because we are relieved they weren’t as bad as the cross country odyssey the Griswolds endured.