Literary Techniques In Li-Young Lee

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Li-Young Lee is a brilliant contemporary poet who used his figurative language skills to write about a complex relationship between father and son. In the poem, A Story, Lee utilizes his abilities of emotional appeal and literary devices to depict a loving father who reads stories to his five year old son; fearing that one day, his son will tire of him and leave. Lee was able to use strategic literary devices such as point of view, structure, and imagery to convey the complexity of the father and son relationship. The poem, A Story, is written in the third person point of view. Thereby, allowing the audience to grasp onto the sentimental emotions of the father. The story begins with the depiction of the father as a “sad...man who is asked …show more content…

At the beginning of the poem, the audience is able to witness an event of a young boy asking his father for story. While the father was deemed a “sad” man, it is later shown that his sadness can be contributed to his fear of his son leaving him. The structure then correlated to the point of going into the future. The future was able to depict what would happen to the loving duo. The father's dreams would become a reality and the son's love and admiration would cease to exist as he is seen screaming at his father. Wanting nothing to do with him. The young, pure child can be seen trying to back lash at his father for acting like a “god” that he can “never disappoint.” The point of this structure was not really a means of clarification from the beginning point of view, but more as an intro to the end. The real relationship can be seen in line 20, where it is mentioned that the relationship between the father and son is “an emotional rather than logical equation.” The love between this father and son, and all its complexity has no real solution. But rather a means of love; the feelings a parent has for wanting to protect their child and the child itself wanting to be set free from their parents grasp. The structure alone is quite complex. Seeing the present time frame of the father and son …show more content…

Lee was able to depict such an arduous relationship between a father and son… a relationship that Lee says shall one day fail, but for now, it is pure and full of emotion. The love the father has for the child, for wanting to keep him by his side is one of true compassion. The complexity between the child being so delighted and displaying such admiration, of wanting his father to read him another bedtime story; to one of which, is screaming at his father for wanting to keep him as a child. This sort of relationship was able to be composed by the use of imagery between the father ageing and the scratching of his ear; to the use of the poems structure layout and point of view all played massive roles in the understanding and perception of this literary art work. Thus, the relationship between the father and son is one of compassion and affection; which, cannot be told using simple minded tactics such as logic and

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