My Fathers Love letters by Yusef Komunyakaa - Essay Example

Aviva Kopolovitz English 165W Marotta 10/2/14 My Father’s Love letters by Yusef Komunyakaa My Father’s Love Letters is a poem by Yusef Komunyakaa that provides a cold account of crude tools that reflect violence at home and various points that surround a distant relationship that prevails between a father, the mother, and their child. Violence in most homes leads to deterioration of love and relationships among the parties involved. In this case, it is appropriate for the parties involved to learn how to control their emotions and behavior for them to serve as good role models for their children and future generations. Failure to devise ways of ending violence at home leads to serious repercussions, particularly if there are children involved. This issue also leads to confusion among children since end up being confused, not knowing who to side with, particularly if they love both of their parents equally. The persona in the poem is a boy whose parents are not in good terms. The narrator portrays his father as a man who is incapable of showing emotions verbally, but instead asks his child to write letters to express how he feels towards his wife. The boy says that “On Fridays he’d open a can of Jax/After coming home from the mill,/& ask me to write a letter to my mother.” This means that the boy’s father gains confidence after taking alcohol after which he asks him to write letters for him. Since, the boy’s father is portrayed as a drunkard, it is true that this behavior is the one that led him to engage in domestic violence, forcing his wife to go away. Currently, the boy’s father drinks to express his sorrow after separating with his wife. He is therefore, heartbroken because he encourages his son to write letters to his mother to see if she will come back and make their family complete. The father outlines the problems he encounters with his wife and uses his son to reunite with her. The narrator says “He would beg/ Promising never to beat her/Again.”By using his son, it is true that the father lacks an understanding of what he did to drive the mother away. My Father’s Love Letters is characterized by lack of stanzas, which negatively affect the flow and emotions of the words. The author portrays tension in the heart, false redemption, and vulnerability. He shows the dark and hidden side of love, which is brought about by the prevalence of a ruthless lover. This is true when the narrator says, “He would beg/Promising to never beat her/Again.” The love that the narrator and his father are seeking from the wife is unattainable. In addition, mercy and forgiveness is nonexistent between the two lovers. The mother can no longer cope with the mistreatments that her husband subjected to and opts to seek a better life elsewhere. A poem’s structure refers to the manner in which the poet organizes his work into either lines or stanzas to help clarify points to the audience. A poet can also structure a poem in an elegiac manner, like in the case of My Father’s Love Letters, which shows the father as running away from grief, but ends up in deep grief when the child’s mother fails to come back. By writing love letters to his wife, he hopes that she will come back and end his sorrow, but she declines, making him to be more distressed. The imagery in the poem reflects the emotional mood of the father and the child as the mother goes away. The poem is pitiless, dysfunctional, and somehow tender in nature. The flowers and sunsets imagery is at odds with the brutality of the father of the speaker and the room in which he writes. The warring imagery expresses a fearful pull and push of love that prevails between something destructive and violent. Additionally, when the narrator comments, “His carpenter’s apron always bulged/ With old nails, a claw hammer/ Looped at his side/ And extension cords/ Coiled around his feet,” he portrays the ruthless nature of his father. This imagery is more powerful as it indicates the coldness that prevails in the family. The manner in which the narrator of the poem is victimized in a world that lacks love is metaphorical. The poet uses manifestation tools to create his work. However, the conflicts in the poem show the inability of the poet to initiate love between his mother and father. In addition, the line where the father beats the mother is not literal, but metaphorical. This becomes evident when the narrator stipulates “Promising never to beat her/ Again”. However, when the narrator adds “We sat in the quiet brutality of/ Voltage meters and/ Pipe threaders,” it is true that the father is still violent and would still mistreat his wife if she returned home. In My Father’s Love Letters, the author shows the boy as lacking a turning point. A turning point refers to a situation where an individual is subjected to issues that make him or her change direction. In this case, the boy’s father grew up in a similar background like the child. This is indicated by the violent nature of the father, and his inability to communicate. The narrator says “Laboring over a simple word, almost/ Redeemed by what he tried to say.”He suffered loneliness, missed basic education, and witnessed his father beat the mother. Therefore, based on the cruel background the child has been subjected to, as reflected in “We sat in the quiet brutality/Of voltage meters & pipes/Lost between sentences” it is true that he will portray similar traits as his father when he grows up. He will be cold and face problems with his family when he grows up.” The sadness in the poem is evident when the boy’s mother “sent postcards of desert flowers/Taller than a man,” indicating that she managed to live a better life after leaving the family. For instance, no comparison is possible between the beautiful and tall desert flowers and the dusty and unsympathetic tool shed, which is characterized “With old nails” and “a claw hammer.” The happy life that the wife finds away from her husband is the one that eats him. Since the wife sends her husband flowers showing him the beauty of life, she does not wish to stay with him anymore because she has found a beautiful life elsewhere. The man is in need of another chance to please her, and that why he begs “Love/Baby, /Honey, Please.” This means that though love prevails between the husband and the wife, it is characterized by violent aspects. The boy honors the words of his father when he tells him “look at blue prints/& tell you how many bricks/Formed each wall.” He means that his father is good at the craft that he has chosen. Unfortunately, the chances of reuniting with his wife are slim. The father lost his chance. This leaves the boy scared of his father, though he recognizes that he is a human being too. At times, the boy is pleased to be with his father because he feels that his mother left. The narrator writes “I was almost happy/She was gone, and sometimes wanted/To slip in something bad.” This means that after the boy’s mother left, he lacked someone who would guide him from the brutalities of this world. In this case, it is true that the boy’s father comes to self-realization when he encourages his son to write letters to his mother to come back, and he promises that he will not mistreat her again. The word “almost” that prevails before the last line creates a likelihood of the tension between the mother and father of the boy. The boy feels that what the father has already done is unacceptable. In this case, it is evident that the boy witnesses the terrific pain the father is experiencing while trying to conjure the appropriate words to encourage his wife to return home. The narrator says “With eyes closed & fists balled./Laboring over a simple word, almost/Redeemed by what he tried to say.” In this case, the father lacks appropriate words to encourage his wife to come home because he mistreated her, and he lacks words that he can use to make her forgive him. From My Father’s Love letters, I have realized that the experience that most people encounter with love is not a functional one. With matters pertaining to love and family, I question whether there is such a thing as functional love. Here, people may claim to love each other but their actions speak otherwise. Challenges will always prevail in love and family matters, but is up to the parties involved to learn how to cope with them to improve how they relate with each other. I have experienced a destructive and failed story of love between father and mother through the emotional state and eyes of the child. Therefore, this issue adds complication in Komunyakaa’s work since it is not about the abusive relationship between a husband and the wife, but about how the relationship becomes evident in their son’s eyes. The work also portrays strange, destructive love that many children observe with confusion and wavering emotions, which negatively affects their future wellbeing. Read More