According to line 8, she seemed displeased with the father’s frivolous behaviors with their son in the kitchen. I was curious as to why the mother’s character was not further discussed. The topic of abuse could fall under the fault of the mother as opposed to the father. The disapproving attitude I received from the mother could mirror the father’s normal position had he not been intoxicated. The next stanza introduced that the father was a hard worker.
My Papa’s Waltz Summary Lines 1-2 The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy; Judging by the title, the person addressed in these lines is the small boy's father, and the small boy is our speaker. The father has been drinking whiskey, and not just a little. He's so drunk that even the smell of his breath could make a small boy, like his son, feel a bit woozy. These lines show that the poem will address the father in the second person, referring to him as "you." But we don't think he's actually there with the boy because, after all, we hear nothing back from the man.
Brittney Lindsey Professor Howard English 102 29 Mar 2013 Journal 1 In The poem “My Papa Waltz”, the relationship between the speaker and his father is an abnormal relationship, his father is engaging his child in his drunken activities .Before the child drifts of to sleep, he gets the opportunity to dance with his father .The Father is so drunk that the alcohol on his breath second handily intoxicates his son and makes him dizzy along with the fast paced dancing. Even though this dancing is an annoyance to his mother, and the child is well aware of this. The son continues to hold on to his drunken father in comfort no matter what the circumstances are. I feel like the son is gaining comfort from his father because, he may not receive any attention at all from his father when he is sober and this is his only opportunity to bond with his father even though he is intoxicated with alcohol. In “The Secretary’s Chant” The speaker turns herself into a machine in comparison to the objects that surround her in her everyday scene as a secretary.
How the child is being held by the wrist demonstrates the father’s dominate characteristic as well as aggressiveness towards his son. Also, the knuckle being battered shows the violent behavior of the father. The poetic devices used in the poem can then connect to the understanding of the child’s need to hang on like death then continue to be mistreated by the violent father. The poems style can also contribute to the child abuse in the poem by mood and diction. An example of mood found in the poem is, “The whiskey on your breath / Could make a small boy dizzy;” (Stanza 1 Lines 1-2).
“My Papa’s Waltz” The vagueness of “My Papa’s Waltz” makes it difficult to be certain what it is about. Some might argue that the poem is a tale of child abuse, but it is more likely telling the story of a father and son’s horseplay. “The whiskey on your breathe could make a small boy dizzy.” This line doesn’t refer to the father as being stumbling drunk. Many people have an evening drink without getting drunk. “But I hung on you like death.” The boy holds on like his life depends on it because he is having so much fun, not because he is terrified as it may seem.
Sedaris and Sanders both describe their events with an emotional state in their lives, one being "Cyclops" which describes his father's exaggerated messages towards dangerous encounters as "Under the Influence" by Sanders causes a mournful tone as he recollects his father's alcoholism. "Under the influence" By Sanders truly sparked a dramatic scene in my head as I read his story as a kid dealing with a dramatic house hold experience. He dealt with a loving relative which happened to be his father, self destruct before his eyes as he watched helplessly. I can remember being at that age, where most things seem simple until I met my fathers other half. It was like night and day as weekdays turned into weekends and father figures turning me into an agitated and frusterated kid.
She fixed him supper one night and he completely refused it, “While she watched him he rose from the bed and took the tray and carried it to the corner and turned it upside down, dumping the dishes and food and all onto the floor” (154-155). When he was fourteen, his profound hatred of women was shown when he, partly unconscious of what he was doing, beat a girl almost to death: “He kicked her hard, kicking into and through a choked wail of surprise and fear. She began to scream, he jerking her up, clutching her by the arm, hitting at her with wide, wild blows, striking at the voice perhaps, feeling her flesh anyway, enclosed by the womanshenegro and the haste” (156-157). When he was eighteen, he met Bobbie and started having a relationship with her, until he found out it was all a lie and he came to hate her too. This was the first
Good Night, Mister Tom is written in omniscient third person point of view. The main character is a thin young boy named William who is physically and emotionally abused by his violent mother. Everyone calls him Willie with the exception of Willie's friend Zacharias Wrench who chooses to call him 'Will' because he thinks it's more dignified. He is also friends with other village children:George an remember. He arrives at Mr Tom's house thinly clad, underfed and covered with painful bruises, and believing he is full of sin, as he has been brought up by a mother who regularly lashed him with a belt and was extremely religious, with strong opinions such as that people who copy go to hell when they die.
Now this is the side of the story that I see, and the theme for this said would be the importance of family. This could be the theme for this subject because in the poem the boy seems to truly enjoy the horse play with his father, as it says in the poem “Then waltzed me off to bed / Still clinging to your shirt” (15-16), which shows he wants to keep playing and not go to bed. The other theme/subject is a little darker, where it seems that a drunken father comes home late one night to beat on his son. The theme for this subject is simple, “Abuse”, as this shows a young boy being beat. An example of this in the poem is when it says, “The hand that held my wrist / Was battered on one knuckle” (9-10), which shows the boy is being beat.
Okonkwo had a horrible temper and this caused him to be very violent. He depicted these actions by beating his family in effort to control them, he believed his first son Nwonye was like his father therefore, he beat him often in attempt to make him more manly. He also beat up his second wife because he came back from outside and his afternoon meal had not yet been prepared, disregarding the fact that it was a peace week and every family was supposed to be peaceful. He made poor decisions by participating in the killing of the boy Ikemefuna who lived with him and called him father, after he had been warned not to participate in his killing. The continuous disagreement between Okonkwo and the new religion, people, and values adopted by his society results in his life falling apart and suicide, at the end of the book.