A Conversation with My Father by Grace Paley - Research Paper Example

Grace Paley’s conversation with my father Grace Paley was an American short story writer, poet, and political activist who passed away in 2007. She was a teacher by profession earlier and later she joined politics by protesting against nuclear proliferation and American militarization. She has started her career as a writer in 1959 with the publication of her first collection of stories, The Little Disturbances of Man. Most of her short stories created waves in America since it contains criticisms against the contemporary politics and changing life styles. In her opinion, American children could begin to understand the world better and to make a better world for themselves by writing, reading, loving literature, etc and hence she started writing stories in order to motivate the children. Grace Paley's short story "A conversation with my Father," reflects the current American culture and it point towards the generation gap between the past and present generation. The way of thinking and opinions of the aged people and the youths have lot of differences than similarities now. The father in this story has made a request to his daughter to write a simple story just once more as he was approaching the end of life situation. The father thought that his daughter may write a story in the same format as those stories written by past male writers. On the other hand, the daughter has written a story which was not acceptable to the father. The father has suggested lot of corrections in the story since he belongs to the past generation. Even though the daughter accepted most of the criticism hesitantly, some of the criticisms were unacceptable to the daughter since she was the representative of the modern generation. In short, "A conversation with my Father," develops with the help of some arguments between a father and his daughter about their opinions about the present and past American literature. This paper briefly analyses how Grace Paley and her work "Conversation with my father" reflects the American experience in literature.  One of the most important features of the story "A Conversation With My Father" is that the story has a main story and so many sub stories. Even though, the main theme of the story was the clash between the young and old, it also succeeded in portraying issues like drug addiction, single parenthood etc. The major theme of the story "A conversation with my Father," is a patriarch relationship between a father and his daughter in the present American culture. Paley uses symbolism and character to portray this patriarch relationship. The father belongs to the past generation whereas the daughter represents the modern American generation. Even though the daughter has written a story in order to fulfill the last minute demand of her father, he was not ready to accept the views and themes of the story developed by the daughter. The father criticizes his daughter, for not constructing straightforward themes in the story. He asked his daughter to emulate past writers Anton Chekhov and Guy de Maupassant, while writing stories. Even though the daughter has concerns in writing realistic tragedies, she attempts to do so, by telling her father a story about, a drug-addicted mother and son. However she does not write a tragic ending to this story, instead she concluded the story on a happy note by telling her father that both mother and son overcome their addictions at the end. But the father was not ready to accept the end part of the story. The following conversation between the daughter and the father helps us to understand the differences in the opinions of between the father and daughter and also the theme of American culture in the past and present. First my father was silent, then he said, "Number One: You have a nice sense of humor. Number Two: I see you can't tell a plain story. So don't waste time." Then he said sadly, "Number Three: I suppose that means she was alone, she was left like that, his mother. Alone. Probably sick?"  I said, "Yes."  "Poor woman. Poor girl, to be born in a time of fools, to live among fools. The end. The end. You were right to put that down. The end."(Paley) The above conversation or arguments between the father and daughter in Pale’s story helps us to understand the differences in perceptions between the father and the daughter in writing a story. The new generation does not like tragedies like the old generation. The new generation always wants things to be ended on a happy note whereas the old generation was more realistic in their approaches and they believed that in most of the cases, tragedy could be the end result. The daughter was not ready to accept the opinions of her father even though she wants to make her father happy. Her father rejects her ending of the story, saying that she is unable to face tragedy either in life or in fiction. Another theme developed by Paley in this story is about the present American life styles and culture. Paley criticizes the American culture of having a baby without a marriage. In this story, the father asked the daughter about the whereabouts of the father of the junkie son. "With you, it's all a joke," he said. "What about the boy's father? Why didn't you mention him? Who was he? Or was the boy born out of wedlock?" "Yes," I said. "He was born out of wedlock." "For God sakes, doesn't anyone in your stories get married? Doesn't anyone have the time to run down to City Hall before they jump into bed?"(Paley) The sentence "For God sakes, doesn't anyone in your stories get married” is really a though provoking one. It clearly expresses the agony of the past generation in the crazy life styles of the present generation. Present generation has fewer beliefs in marriage or wedlock. Paley argues that the drug addiction was affected the son simply because of the lack of protection or care from his father. His mother opted to stay alone and she thought that everything would become right even in the absence of a husband. She tried to do everything possible to make her son happy. But the end result as assume or portrayed by the daughter in the story was unacceptable to the father. Another theme developed by Paley in this story is about the necessity of character for a person. When the father tells Paley that "A person must have character”, she disagrees and tells her father that the model for the woman was her next-door neighbor. The daughter or Paley represents the views of the modern generation. Paley’s father wants Paley to have a greater sense of tradition and background. But she was not ready to swallow the opinions of her father as it is. In her opinion, people should lead their life based on the current requirements rather than going after traditions or customs. Paley forced to exercise different forms of wisdom in order to convince her father. The story also criticizes the attitude of current generation to do things without perfection. When Paley’s father asked her to write a story, she created a story within few minutes without explaining backgrounds of the characters of the story. "But that's not what I mean," my father said. "You misunderstood me on purpose. You know there's a lot more to it. You know that. You left everything out. Turgenev wouldn't do that. Chekhov wouldn't do that. They are in fact Russian writers you never heard of, you don't have an inkling of, as good as anyone, who can write a plain ordinary story, who would not leave out what you have left out. I object not to facts but to people sitting in trees talking senselessly, voices from who knows where..." (Paley) The above paragraph clearly shows Paley’s father’s agony while hearing a senseless story from Paley without any details. Modern generation always look for shortcuts. The current generation is not ready for hard work. They want more yields for fewer efforts. Paley does not like to see the darker sides of life unlike her father. She is always optimistic and flexible. She had lot many years to come and she was not ready to lead her life in tragedies. She looked only at the positive sides of her life. On the other hand, the case of her father was entirely different. He was already crossed 86 and he had not much left in his life. In other words, he was seeing only the darker sides of life at the age of 86 which is quiet natural. In Paley’s opinion, the modern generation had the strength of character to overcome their weaknesses and hence she concluded the story on a happy note. However, her father was not ready to accept it because of his strong beliefs in history and tradition. In short, the story, "A conversation with my Father" represents a clash between the life styles of the past and present generation. The story argues that the present generation is competent enough to tackle the life problems more than the past generation and they are giving more importance to the brighter sides of life than the darker sides. Works Cited 1. Paley Grace. “A Conversation with My Father”. Web. 11 December 2010. Read More