Father And Son Relationship As Revealed In My Papa's Waltz

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The Father and Son Relationship as Revealed in ‘My Papa’s Waltz’
My Papa’s Waltz reflects on the experiences that the narrator had with his father during his childhood. Written by Theodore Roethke, the poem paints a young boy who is conflicted about how he felt about his father as shows the presence of a complicated relationship. Although the speaker is waltzing with his intoxicated father in a seemingly happy childhood memory, the tone and choice of words show a conflicting idea on the occurrences. The poem may be interpreted in two different ways depending on the understanding of the reader. On one side, it can be seen as the events of an innocent boy waltzing with his father and the other interpretation could involve the storyline of an abusive and drunkard father. The unconditional love of the son portrays in the poem as he is seen to be looking forward to the waltzing with his father despite his intoxicated condition (Darah). In the last line, the speaker says ‘Still clinging to your shirt’ (Theodore, 16) which shows that the boy did not want the …show more content…

This shows that at this point, the father of the speaker of intoxicated to the point that the young boy could smell his breath and still feel the effect. At that point, the young boy did not seem to be repulsed by the action, and he would still hang on to his father as they waltz. However, the tone of the speaker shows deterrent and even repulsion of the way that his father acted. The relationship between the father and son is complicated with the child sometimes unsure if he is afraid or only feels indifferent to the father. The poem further says ‘but I hung on like death, such waltzing was not easy’ (Theodore, 3,4) which shows a scenario where the boy was afraid that he would get hurt in the process of waltzing considering that his father was

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