...The relationship between a father and son is one of the most important things a child can have. A good relationship with one’s father results in a more stable life and mindset. Both My Papa’s Waltz by Theodore Roethke and Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden display father and son relationships. These poems have complications in the relationship between the two, but My Papa’s Waltz is a more negative complication. Those Winter Sundays shows more of a misunderstanding from the son’s point of view. Negative complications help emphasise how important a healthy relationship between a father and son is. My Papa’s Waltz shows a conflicting relationship between father and son. The boy seems to love his father. This is evidenced by the boy...
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...Father & Son Father and son love is complicated. Nobody said being a good father was easy. No matter what age your child is or how many children you have, you have to know that a father's work is never done. To be a good father, you have to be present, be a good disciplinarian and role model, and be sympathetic to your children's needs without being a pushover. I will explain the similarities on how the two fathers of the stories were good role models. The bond between a parent and a child is one of the strongest things on this earth. The relationships between father and son in the poems "The Gift" by Li-Young Lee, and the story “Digging“ By Seamus Heaney. In all two genres father and son are the most prominent characters. All have the absence or near absence of mother figures. They also all show how important a father is to his son. Show the importance of father-son relationships through the fathers' involvement in their sons' lives, the fathers teaching their sons life skills, and the fathers' immense love for their sons. Love with admiration, care, demurred, unrestricted, warm, role model and respect. The similarities between the stories “Digging“ By Seamus Heaney, and “The Gift” by Li-young Lee is that the kids have role model fathers. “Digging” describes how a boy looks up to his father and the son observes and writes it down as he is proud of him. in the poem it says “When the spade sinks into gravelly ground. My father digging, I look down”(3-4). It states that the...
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...shows the detached relationship the father and son have. The third person point of view of the passage interprets the true feelings of the son and the father’s relationship upon the breaking of the tradition. The third person point of view makes it clear to show that the father is actually upset that the son had broken a tradition of nine years, while the son didn’t think twice about it. The passage begins with the mixed feelings of the son. The son sat in front of the fire and looked across at his father and wondered how he was going to tell him that he wanted to fish with Bill Harper this camping trip, rather than going with his father,...
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...his mother and stepdad, who he is not amused about. We hear that when he compares his father to his stepdad named Jim. The boy is very fascinated by his father and looks up to him, even though the father hasn’t been a part of his for 4 month. In the text the reader almost only experiences the story from the boy’s view. We hear about the feelings of the boy; what he thinks, and how he experiences things. We get to know the boy better by these observations, for example when the boy “is intent. Watching Dad. Watching what dad is”. It seems like the boy has a hard time figuring out what “dad” is, and it feels like he has an ambivalent relationship to his real father and his stepdad. All though there is a physical distance between father and son, the boy have a hard time letting go of his father. The boy tries to connect with his father even though he is very distracted and never shows an interest in the conversations they have. The boy tries to build a stronger relationship to his father and every time he feels ignored or left behind makes excuses for his father. The boy supresses his own feelings, because it is too hard for him to feel the distance his father has taken to him and acknowledging their lost relationship. This also shows how much the separation has affected the boy. The father knows that it is already too late to make up for his loss. He has already given up their relationship and is determent that it is too late to fight for it. He is having a hard time showing...
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...shouldering the guilt of telling his father that he would prefer to fish with a friend rather than with his father. Although the young man and his father clearly maintain a close relationship, as shown through the author’s continuous use of “they” in the initial paragraph and the son’s struggle with guilt in the last few paragraphs, the son is beginning to move on with his life and thus distance himself from his father, as shown through the limited perspective of the son in the later half of the excerpt and the carefully selected details surrounding the interactions between father and son. With the author’s continuous...
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...Mark Slouka. We are introduced to a depressed father, who takes his son on a trip, in the hope of achieving a stronger relationship with his son. The father appears to be very attached to his previous/past experiences with his own father, and in that context a theme such as the relationship between father and son can be related/connected to the text. The story is told from a 3rd person limited narrator. The limited view is seen by the author’s attachment to the main character, who is the father. The story is described through the father’s point-of-view, which can be seen by the big insight the reader is given, on the father’s thoughts and feelings, during the story. The narrator use ‘he’ in relation to the father, which clarifies that it is a 3rd person narrator. The narrative technique contributes to create a personal impression of the father, and creates a relationship between the reader and main character because of the knowledge that readers are given during the story. “For some reason it made him happy, and he hadn’t been happy for a while” The techniques also force the reader to feel compassion for the father, because we know his thoughts and feelings. The readers do not get an insight on the son’s thoughts and feelings, and we do not know what his attitude towards the situation is, therefor it creates a distant relationship between the son and reader. Another narrative technique, that contributes to create distance to the son, it the narrative mode of description. The...
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...In Dalton Trumbo’s excerpt from his novel Johnny Got His Gun, Trumbo uses the selection of detail, and point of view to characterize the father and son’s relationship. This valued, thoughtful, and strong relationship is developed and revealed gradually throughout the excerpt. Trumbo introduces the backstory of the father-son trip by revealing the tradition of the trip. “They had been coming… was seven,” and “...for the first time in all their trips…” set a precedent of the tradition of the trip, and the quality bonding that occurs during this occasion. Trumbo choosing to include the importance of the father-son bond on the trip, and the quality time that is spent sets the tone that this is a valued relationship, one that while strong, holds...
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...In Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, the author gives many examples of father and son relationships that help prepare a boy to understand right from wrong. The emotional bond be-tween a father and son demonstrate the necessity of a fatherly figure. The relationships between Baba and Amir, Hassan and Sohrab, and Amir and Sohrab in The Kite Runner are examples of the emotional bonds that demonstrate the need for a father. To begin, Amir and Baba, the protagonist and his father, are a prime example of the fa-therly figure needed in one’s life. Baba and Amir are nowhere close to the expression “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” Amir is nothing like his father, and this causes Baba to not be the great fatherly figure that Amir needs because he does not understand why Amir is so different from him. Baba has little emotional attachment to his son because of their differences, and he tells Rahim Khan, his friend and business partner, “If I hadn’t seen the doctor pull him out of my wife with my own eyes, I’d never believe he’s my son.” Despite...
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...As a young boy you need a father figure. Boys need a father to learn how to be a man. They also need their love, attention and appreciation. Several do what they can to be seen and accepted by the man, they look up to the most. They want their father to be proud for them. But what happens, when your father isn't there for you? What if you don't know your father? This is the case in the short story "Compass And Torch", where the main character wants his father's love, attention and appreciation. The short story "Compass And Torch" is written by Elizabeth Baines in 2003. The main theme in the short story is the relationship between father and son. It is written in present time with an omniscient third person narrator. The narrator takes us into the main character's thoughts, so that we see things from his point of view. "It's OK, the boy decides, that his dad hasn't looked at the torch, hasn't studied or handled it like Jim." (p.2, l.49-50) The main character is an eight-year-old boy, who is caught in the middle of his parents' separation. He lives with his mother and her boyfriend Jim. His father has arranged a camping trip for the two of them, but his mother doesn't like the idea. She thinks it is too impulsive and too dangerous. "Mad! The first time in four mouths he has his eight-year-old son and what does he plan to do? Take him camping up a mountain! Talk about macho avoidance activity!" (p.1, l.18-20) She also doesn't trust the boy's father to be careful. "Now you will...
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...snowmen, and Christmas appear. However Robert Hayden’s poem Those Winter Sundays is quite the opposite. In fact it illustrates the lack of relationship between a father and son. It is through Hayden’s usage of techniques imagery and diction which allows for the regret and sense of loss felt by the narrator. Hayden’s subtlety in the poem forces it to be carefully read so that the reader may reflect on the misunderstandings of their own relationship with their parent. The first line provides a hint to the reader on who the narrator is, “Sundays too my father…” this can possibly be a father reminiscing. An adult is reminiscing on the strenuous relationship he had with his father. It can be inferred that the narrator is a male due to the narrator’s shoes being “polished.” Only men during those this period polished their shoes. “Speaking indifferently to him,” reflects a sense of male pride that may be impeding the development of their relationship. Sunday and the “polished good shoes,” can represent the Sabbath or the Catholic Church. It can even allude to the relationship between God and his son Jesus Christ who happens to be born during winter. The difficulty in Jesus Christ understanding the methods of his Father, God. Another allusion that can be made is through the word “chronic” that can represent the revolt between Zeus and his father Cronus. A tone of remorse and regret can be detected throughout the poem, but especially in the final line. Anaphora is used to first reflect...
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...is talking to his father. As he goes through the poem, he talks about the abuse, his mother's reaction, how he could not let go because the man was his father, and how he seems to have mixed feelings about his relationship with him. The author used interesting word choices to make the poem have multiple meanings depending on how someone would interpret it. The first-person speaker and his father have a complex relationship surrounded by an abusive relationship and a mixture of love and fear, yet the speaker does not resent his father. Throughout the poem the father abuses the son, the speaker. Lines 5 and 6 could be interpreted to say the father is being excessively violent towards the son which causes pans to fall off shelves. Lines 9 and 10 also seem to allude to the fact the father hits his son by mentioning the "battered knuckle." A child would be scared to be hit especially if it is their own father and the child is young as he says in the poem. Line 13 says "you beat time on my head." This line could be seen as anytime the speaker was late he would get hit in the head by his father. While the son faces the abuse of his father, he does not appear to...
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...Father/Son Relationships The Nineteen-Forties was a very patriarchal era. The father was the head of the house and his life’s works were passed down to his sons. A strong relationship between a man and his sons was crucial to maintaining a healthy household. Once the relationship began to deteriorate, the entire family unraveled. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman displays how the relationship between Willy and his two sons creates the downfall of the Loman family. The relationship is constantly changing throughout the story. Biff and Happy idolize and have nothing but love for their father when they are children, but when they grow up they realize how their father failed to prepare them for the real world. Willy Loman is portrayed as an un-fit father. Willy never really had a father when he was growing up. He lost his father when he was very young. Because Willy was deprived of affection as a child, he smothers his sons with love and oppresses them with the nakedness of his hopes for their success. (Carson pg. 92) His older brother Ben stepped in and served as a substitute father. (Carson pg. 90) As a result of not having a true father figure in his childhood, Willy struggled with fatherhood because had no example to base his parenting on. When Ben passed away, Willy lost his last connection to his father. (Carson pg. 91) Willy’s lack of a real father has left him as an insecure person. He has been trying his whole life to compensate for his loss. Willy...
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...person happy and doing the right thing. Most people would think lying is not an acceptable way to create a healthy and sustainable relationship, but to what extent does telling the truth become harmful in a relationship? In the memoir Night written by Elie Wiesel and in the movie Life is Beautiful directed by Roberto Benigni, both father and son Shlomo and Elie, and Guido and Joshua get sent off to a concentration camp due to the heinous matter of discrimination. The father-son relationship in Night differs from the father-son relationship in Life is Beautiful by how each of the fathers deal with the truth which ultimately distinguishes between a healthy...
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...how the programs work in reducing juvenile crime, and based on the analysis of the relationship between program premise and goals and one or more major causes of juvenile delinquent behavior. In another discussion, there will be explanations of what the two intervention programs major goals are, the programs objectives, and what the programs core beliefs are. The key participants that are involved in these programs will also be explained, as well as what services they provide for the youth. The last discussion will be identifying which one of the programs between the two is more effective at reducing juvenile crime and why. The two programs that I have chosen are the Father and Son prevention Program, and the YES (Youth Empowerment Solutions) prevention program. The Father and Son project is in Michigan and is a program designed for African American fathers and their sons ranging in age from 10-14 ("Michigan Youth Violence Prevention Center", 2015). The Father and Son prevention Program is aimed to heighten the parenting behaviors as well as reducing the risk of youth behaviors. With this program, it helps the father and son bond so that way in the future the son would not have self-esteem issues or would feel left out. The Father and Son program helps in reducing juvenile crime by engaging in equally beneficial activities to enhance the relationship between the youth and the youth’s father ("Michigan Youth Violence Prevention Center", 2015). I also helps in reducing juvenile...
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...movie The Great Debaters the father son relationship between Sr. James Farmer and James Famer Jr. also between Melvin Tolson and Henry Lowe. When it comes to fathers and sons usually each of them wants different things for each other. In this case be have the best of both worlds. Sr. James Farmer and James Jr. have a pretty normal father son relationship, the father wants his son to be the best he can be. While also keeping him distracted by the real world around him, all of the bad things that are going on. For example when the pig farmer pulls out a gun as a threat to kill Sr. James Farmer for killing his pig unintentionally, without paying him. Also when James Jr. followed Mr. Tolson into the woods into a random barn, and saw a bunch of farmers gather together to end the democracy. These are things that Sr. James Farmer did not want his son to see especially at only an age of a fourteen year old. James comes running to his father to tell him the great news about him making the debating team and his father does not seem to be all excited about it. Sr. James seems to be more worried about his son getting his schoolwork done. James Jr. suffers from his father imposing him, near titanic presence of his scholar father. Sr. James had had a big influence on James Jr. for a number of reasons. One because he was a very successful man. James wanted to grow up to be just like his old man. As the movie goes on the relationship between Sr. James and James Jr. grows...
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