A Conversation with My Father by Grace Paley

“A Conversation with My Father”, by Grace Paley

The short-story “A Conversation with My Father”, by Grace Paley, combines several themes and the author uses the elements of abandonment, denial, irony, humor and foreshadowing, to bring this emotional story together. This story is mainly about the relationship between a parent and his child. The primary characters are a father, and his child. There is no mention of whether the child is his daughter or son. The tone of the story and the conversations made me believe that the old man has a daughter, and hence I will refer to the child as his daughter.

The first sentence of the story, “My father is eighty-six years old and in bed”, is the first foreshadowing element. Its full meaning comes to appreciation at the end of the story, because we know that the father is sick and old, and that he will die soon. This can be understood through the sentence “I had promised the family to always let him have the last word when arguing…” and “Sitting on one pillow, leaning on three, he offers last-minute advice and makes a request.” It is almost as if, it was his last wish and that he was too weak to argue with his daughter.

The father’s last request is to have his daughter “write a simple story just once more, the kind de Maupassant wrote, or Chekhov, the kind you used to write. Just recognizable people and then write down what happened to them next.” We get an insight in the lives of the father and his daughter. They are both well...