Father-Child Relationship through the Use of Literary Devices - Essay Example

 Exploration of the Father – Child Relationship Through the Use of Literary Devices in Heane, Hayden, and Roethke. YOUR NAME COURSE NUMBER DUE DATE INSTRUCTOR NAME The theme of father and child is often explored in literature and more expressively in poetry. The complex nature of familial relationships offers intense emotion, volatile situations, and common experiences. These common experiences allow poetry and their authors to be easily accessible, and understood by their audiences. In “My Papa's Waltz”, a poem by Theodore Roethke, the narrator details the relationship between an inebriated father, and his young son. Roethke ventures into the topics of child abuse and unconditional love. “Those Winter Sundays” written by Robert Hayden, is a reflection, by a grown child, on how he treated his father in his youth. Hayden comments on the guilt a child has when they realize they have taken their father for granted. In Seamus Heaney's “Digging” the narrator expresses admiration and love for his father and grandfather. Heaney explores a child's “need to please” and a grown child's need to be his own man. Each of these poems depict different events, through different eyes, and expresses different sentiments. However, through the use of literary devices each author is able to convey and explore the unique relationship between father and child. In “Digging” the relationship between father and child is conveyed from the child's point of view through the use of onomatopoeia, extended metaphor, and fragmented structure. The poem centers on the narrator coming to terms with becoming a writer instead of a laborer which his father and grandfather both had been. The narrator acknowledges his father's work and work ethic. He articulately describes his father's expertise at digging with admiration and writes, “The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft / Against the inside knee was levered firmly. / He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep” (lines 10-12). Onomatopoeia is when an author uses words which resembles sound or suggests meaning. “Rasping” (line 2), “gravelly” (line 3), “sloppily” (line 20), “squelch” and “slap” (line 30) create the harsh sounds associated with farming and reflect the tense relationship between the narrator and his father due to the narrator's choice of occupation. The narrator prefers a “squat pen” (line 2) in his hand instead of “the handle of a spade” (Line 15). While the narrator chooses his own path he still wants to please his father. Heaney uses the extended metaphor of roots and digging to explain that what the narrator does is not altogether different from his father's occupation. Both hold a 'tool' between the fingers and the thumb - “snug as a gun” (Line 2) and he too chooses to “dig with it” (Line 31). The narrator understands that he has “no spade to follow men like” (Line 28) his father but he digs too (as a writer), at the “living roots in his head” (line 27). The use of fragmented structure and meter mimic the narrator's indecision in having to choose between his father's legacy and his own desire to become a writer. Heaney begins his poem with a two line stanza. As the poem continues, the stanzas grow in length while the narrator sorts out his thoughts about his father. In the middle of the poem he comes to a firm revelation about his father. He comments, and states in two lines, “By God, the old man could handle a spade. / Just like his old man” (lines 15-16). The stanzas grow again as the narrator confronts and justifies his decision to write, and concludes in three lines, Between my finger and my thumb / The squat pen rests. / I'll dig with it” (lines 29-31). The relationship between father and child, in this poem, is strained by the personal choice of the adult child become a writer instead of a farmer. In Robert Hayden “Those Winter Sundays” a grown child struggles through the guilt he feels for the years of taking his father for granted. Hayden uses the style of poem, alliteration, and the repetition to accurately portray the relationship between father and child. “Those Winter Sundays” is a lyrical poem or elegy, which mourns the dead. This is particularly important because the speaker in this poem is recounting his childhood indifference toward his father. He wants to apologize, and to express to his father he now understands his father's sacrifices. Unfortunately, he is unable to because his father is dead. Hayden also uses alliteration of the “k” sound to not only link all parts of the poem but also to enhance the major theme of the poem, reconciliation, through the systematic repeating of it's sound. The “k” sound of reconciliation can be heard in the following words: “blueblack” (line 1), “cracked” (line 2), “ached” (line 3), “weekday” (line 4), “thanked” (line 5), “wake” (line 6), “breaking” (line 6), “call” (line 7), and “chronic” (line 9). The speaker tries, through the poem, to reconcile the actions of his self involved childhood with this now mature viewpoint. He realizes now that he never told his father that he loved and valued. The speakers states “No one ever thanked him” (line 5), the man “who had driven out the cold” (line 11) everyday and even on those winter sundays. The climax and resolution of this poem occur in the last two lines. The pivot point in this poem is the repetition of “What did I know, what did I know” in line 13. The speaker realizes now the “lonely offices” (line 14) that his father and other fathers fill. That fatherhood is about endurance, “from labor in the weekday “ (line 4). It is about unconditional love as children “slowly.. rise and dress” (line 8). Being a father is also about hard sacrifice as his “father got up early / and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold” (lines 1-2). The father child relationship is often plagued by silence which appears as indifference. Many children, like the speaker in this poem, realize too late what their father's mean to them, and never get a chance to tell them. Many people claim that “My Papa's Waltz” is a tender poem about the positive interaction between a father and son and a joyful childhood memory. While still others believe that it is a sad retelling of the abuse of a child by his drunken father. “My Papa's Waltz” is a solid example of how poetry can be greatly influenced by the reader's past. It was Roethke's goal to create a piece of prose which was not his alone but belong also to the reader and his/her personal experience. He leaves the poem open for interpretation by the use of several literary devices. The relationship between father and son is expressed by Roethke's through the use of meter, alliteration , and juxtaposition of images. The images of “dancing” together, a positive interaction, juxtaposed by the bruised knuckles is suggestive of violence. This negative interpretation is further supported by the image of the father holding not the son's hand but his wrist. This is a much more aggressive act than hand holding and gives the impression that perhaps the child is being forced to dance. In lines 13-14, “You beat time on my head / With a palm caked hard by dirt,” is once again an image of violence. It is obvious that the narrator could mean “keep time” instead of “beat time”. In which case, the image suggest a father playing the drums lightly on his son's head. The use of the word “beat” creates a rough tone to the lines and references, in sound, the word “battered “ from line 10. Alliteration is when the initial sounds of words are similar and place together. In line 4, “Such waltzing was not easy.” Here the repetition of the gentle “w” contrasts the simile of death used in line 3. The alliteration gives the impression that the waltz peaceful however when combined with the idea of death, it is clear that the waltz is “not easy”. “My mother's countenance / Could not unfrown itself” (lines 7-8) has the alliteration of the hard “c” sound. Compared that hard sound to the joyful stanza it is found in. The “c” becomes a sign of caution and carefulness. Roethke uses patterns of syllables to parallel the actual movement of the waltz. For example in line 1-2, “The whiskey on your breath / Could make a small boy dizzy;” but should be read with the following emphasizes “The whiskey on your breath / Could make a small boy dizzy”. The meter continues as above and rhyme scheme traditionally known as iambic trimeter. However, in line 11, mid way through the poem and continuing throughout the rest of the poem the meter is slightly different from the waltz. Roethke users meter to mirror the appearance of a drunk man trying to waltz with his son. The relationship between father and child, in this poem, is one which is dysfunctional but full of unconditional love. Roethke, Hayden, and Heaney use their poetry to explore the dynamic relationship between father and child. It is through the specific and unique use of literary devices that each author presents his view of fatherhood. Roethke in “My Papa's Waltz” describes the delicate dance between a sometime brutal father and his ever loyal child. Hayden in his poem “Those Winter Sundays” explores the issues of guilt that often plague adult children long after their parents pass away. In “Digging” Heaney struggles through his decision not to take up the family's work legacy while still maintaining the approval his father. While their style and technique may differ it is clear that each author looks back on the father child relationship with affection, humor, and longing for what was lost. Works Cited Hayden, Robert. "Those Winter Sundays." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, Ninth Edition. Ed. X. J. Kennedy, Dana Gioia. New York City: Longman, 2004. 1186. Heaney, Seamus. "Digging." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, Ninth Edition. Ed. X. J. Kennedy, Dana Gioia. New York City: Longman, 2004. 1185. Theodore, Roethke. "My Papa's Waltz." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, Ninth Edition. Ed. X. J. Kennedy, Dana Gioia. New York City: Longman, 2004. 718. Read More