A Literary Analysis Of 'A Story' By Li-Young Lee

The constant changing of technology and social norms makes difficult for different generations to understand one another and fully relate to each other. Diction and slang change as years pass and what is socially acceptable may have been prohibited in the previous generations.
A parent may want to understand their child and connect to them, but they may not know how to do it. In Li-Young Lee’s poem “A Story”, the literary devices point of view, metaphors, and the structure of the poem are used to portray the complex relationship of the father and child and their inability to be able to connect with one another despite their wishes to do so.
The poem is written in the father’s point of view; this gives insight of the father’s character and

his feelings over his inability to connect with and support his son. The father believes that he does not support his son well enough because he describes himself as a “sad” man who cannot come up with a story to tell his child. His child is seen by him as waiting patiently for his father, and the father is ashamed that despite being in a “world of stories”, he cannot recall one. This creates a fear in the father that his child will not see him as reliable and will eventually sever their relationship. Despite his wishes to be a source of support for his son, the father does not see himself as a person who could successfully be a parental figure, causing him to hesitate when interacting with his son. The point of view gives the readers insight of the father’s turmoil and the reasoning why he cannot have a better relationship with his son, because he does not know how. By being unable to communicate, the father tries other ways to be a good father for his son, but when he is unable to, his narrative of the poem reveals his regret and his feeling of helplessness that he can’t do anything to change their relationship.
Metaphors also appear in the poem when the father has a vision of what could be the future.

The father sees himself asking if his child is a “god…that [the father] sites mute before [him,” and then asking if he himself is “a god in that [he] should never disappoint?” The father first describes his child as a god because he feels that his son is a being that is untouchable, and it to be able to fully connect with him is something the father does not comprehend. The father then describes himself as a god, asking if he failed to be like a god in his child’s eyes and be perfect in every way. Another metaphor in the poem are the books. The father uses books to connect with his son, much like how Christians use the Bible, a book, to connect with their God. The Bible is something that can have a positive influence on the lives of Christians and support them through their lives all through the use of words. This is similar to the books the father uses. The father does not know how to be a positive influence on his son, so he uses books as a medium to communicate with his son due to the fact that he cannot think of what to say himself. By using these metaphors, the father is comparing his and his child’s relationship to one of a mortal and a god: a relationship that is not familial love, but rather one of a love or worship for a divine being. The father feels that he cannot have a good relationship with his son because his child is something that he cannot understand no matter how hard he tries. He is also worried that he will never live up to his son’s expectations and will fail to support

him.
The structure of the poem also plays a part in portraying the father and son’s complex relationship. Two times during the poem, the voice changes from the father to the son’s. Each time, the son is pleading with his father for a story. The father describes the son’s pleading as “…emotional rather than logical…” to show how the son notices his and his father’s deteriorating relationship. His pleas have urgency behind them, rather than a simple statement. He too knows that his and his father’s relationship is not a close as they both want it to be. The son wants to connect with his father and have a person he can rely on. He relies on the stories his father tells for a common interest between the two so that connecting with his father would be easier. When his father fails to give him the one thing that helps the two of them relate, the son is at a loss of what to do. He pleads with his father for a story because if they do not have that time together, the son is worried that he’ll lose the person he could rely on.
Around the middle of the poem, the tone shifts from somber to apprehensive to reflect the feelings of the father about the present and the future of his and his son’s relationship. The first three stanzas have a somber tone due to the diction the father uses to describe himself and his plight; describing how his son will “give up” on him and will not rely on him as a father. He is upset that currently he is unable to do anything to improve his and his son’s relationship. When the tone changes, it revels the worries he has for the future. Ironically, while the father cannot create a story that would help him gain better relations with his son, he can easily create his own “story” about what would happen in the future if he continued to fail to meet his son’s expectations. He believes his son will leave before he can prove himself to be a good parental figure. The father does not wish for his son to leave, but he is at a loss of what to do to make him stay. He is worried that once he figures out how to be a good parent, his son will have already given up on him, believing that his father is a failure. The father is worried that his son will see him as he sees himself, someone who cannot support the people who are important to him, and once his son leaves, the father is worried that he’ll never be able to reconnect with his son again.
The relationship between the father and son in the poem is not a smooth one, and it is portrayed by the point of view, metaphors, and the structure of the poem. Both characters have their own fears about the future of their relationship. The father worries that he will fail in his duty to be a parental figure in his son’s life and will never be able to connect with him, while his son is worried that the things holding him and his father together will disappear, making him loose and important person he could rely on and love.