Lost Between Love and Abuse

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Since the time of Adam and Eve, parents have played a major role in upbringing children and reproducing more generations. In most societies, the father has been the backbone of the family and played a major role in providing support and stability to the family. Yet, the role of the father differs from a family to another. While some fathers focus only on feeding and educating their children, others focus on every aspect of their children’s lives. The father’s leadership often drives the children to have a close relationship with the father. Sons often see the father as their role model and build a father-son relationship. Yet, the father-son relationship can be either weak or strong depends on the father’s concept of parenthood. The American poet Theodore Roethke (1908-1963) describes the relationship between him and his father through his poem “My Papa’s Waltz.” Theodore reveals his painful memories of his difficult childhood in a critical age when many children wouldn’t ask for anything more than the love of their parents. Professor Grant T. Smith “Theodore Roethke's ‘My Papa's Waltz’: A Reader's Response”, explains how his students value the father-son relationship in Theodore’ poem, he believes that “Their primary argument that this poem depicts a harsh father-son relationship was that the description of the dancing is violent.” Conversely, some readers disagree with this statement and think that the father-son relationship on Theodore’s poem in fact unleashes a cohesive bond between the father and his son. Theodor’s poem “My Papa’s Waltz” vividly reflects a picture of child abuse through the child’s voice.

Theodor’s poem caught the attention of a remarkable number of scholars, researchers and individual readers who partici...

... middle of paper ...

...this question has more than one answer. I strongly believe that Theodor’s poem certainly reflects a painful childhood experience of physical and physiological abuse. Theodore’s poem is a clear definition of violence and child mistreatment.

Works Cited

Fong, Bobby. "Roethke's `My Papa's Waltz'." College Literature 17.1 (1990): 78. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Web. 9 Apr. 2011.

Grant T. Smith. Theodore Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz": A Reader's Response 30 Jan. 2007

McKenna, John J. "Roethke's Revisions and the Tone of 'My Papa's Waltz'." ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews 11.2 (1998): 34-38. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 8 Apr. 2011.

Roethke, Theodore. “My Papa’s Waltz.” The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke. New York:

Anchor Books, 1975. 43.

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