Analysis Of The Glass Jar Gwen Harwood

Sylvia Plath and Gwen Harwood tell two very different stories of parental relationships, Mother Who Gave Me Life praising Harwood’s mother and speaking with love and affection, whereas Plath’s Daddy is full of hate for her father. These reflections on the poet’s parental relationships are made using imagery, symbolism and tone.

Gwen Harwood’s poetry endures to engage readers through its poetic treatment of loss and consolation. Gwen Harwood’s seemingly ironic simultaneous examination of the personal and the universal is regarded as holding sufficient textual integrity that it has come to resonate with a broad audience and a number of critical perspectives. This is clearly evident within her poems ‘At Mornington’ and ‘A Valediction’, these specific texts have a main focus on motif that once innocence is lost it cannot be reclaimed, and it is only through appreciating the value of what we have lost that we can experience comfort and achieve growth.

Any interpretation of this story is due to the reader’s personal emotions and feelings toward his or her own Papa. This story can be either a dance between him and his father, thus bringing them closer together. However, there is a darker side of this poem, on this side it is an unsettling fight between a boy and his drunken father and all the intimacy of the dance does not make an impression on the reader and is overshadowed by the anger they feel.

Concisely, child abuse in the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” is clear through the provided context clues such as setting, emotions and word choice. By the end of the poem, readers get a family portrait with a drunken father, angry mother, and abused child (Janssen 43). The construction of the poem allows the reader to get a better understanding of the poem by the end. The poem also permits the readers to get an insight at child abuse and how it

From the moment his child is born, a man's world changes. He is no longer Jim, Tim or Greg, but father. His child entrusts him to be a guide, a teacher, but foremost, a protector; their shield from the horrors of an uncertain world. It’s a thankless job, but worth the safety of his child; unless of course, he’s one jeopardizing it. In his poem, “My Papa’s Waltz,” Theodore Roethke describes a neglectful and abusive dance between a father and young son.

Victims of abuse, especially children, turn inward and live vicariously through false selves; they bridge their reality with fantasy in order to survive in a precarious environment. The speaker in "My Papa's Waltz,” a young boy, uses the disciplined, traditional dance of a Waltz as subtle, symbolism to represent beatings he encountered daily by his abusive, drunken father. By replacing the horror of being beat with imagery of elegant, smooth dancing, the young boy turned his struggles into strengths and adapted the best way he knew how in order to live and see another

The child is trying to escape and figure out why he is in trouble and why he has is so fearful of his mother. A similar circumstance unfolds in “My Papa’s Waltz” where the child desires attention and acceptance by the parent. The small boy enjoys spending time with his father and clings to him for attention as they waltz around the kitchen before heading to bed. The small child’s only focus is on his father and the joy he is experiencing.

The line “Could make a small boy dizzy” helps the reader understand that the father has been drinking intensively that night. When someone thinks of an alcoholic, they think of violence, and discomfort. Line number 3 and 4 perfectly proves the point. “But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy.” Upon reading this, one can think of two things.

Readers of poetry appreciate poems that challenge their thinking and require critical analysis of various elements to determine an appropriate interpretation. One such poem is Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz,” which combines character, setting, and word choice to create questions in the reader’s mind. Looking closely, it appears that Theodore Roethke portrays a scene of un-intentional abuse between a father and his young son.

Child abuse is in many homes today and remains untreated. The abuse that a child can experience can physically and emotionally scar him, and those scars can last for a lifetime. In the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, the speaker describes the abuse that his father dealt to him under the guise of a dance. Although this abuse is hidden to some readers on the first read through, there are a few instances in the poem that are typical signs of abuse. The evidences of abuse in the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” that are typical to child abuse are the alcoholism of the father, the striking of the child by the father, and the child’s unwillingness to go into his bedroom.

This poem has portrayed this dance as the relationship between the father and son, the fear of his drunken father however the kid never hated him. The dance has portrayed more than just the beating itself, "At every step you missed / My right ear scraped a buckle. " (11,12), even though being beaten up so badly, the kid still "clings on like death". It does not only talk about the dance and beating, but also the relationship with the father.

In “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, the writer reflects on his childhood experience with his father through a memory of dancing a waltz. Roethke describes the dance with details that hint at physical force coming from a possibly drunk dad. The reader is left to construe whether the relationship is simply a carefree love or if it has a darker meaning, possible parental abuse. Roethke uses particular structure, language, and characterization to develop an somewhat ambiguous relationship that the reader is left to interpret.

While the subject of “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke has spurred passionate academic debate from professors, scholars, and students alike, the imagery, syntax, and diction of the poem clearly supports the interpretation that Roethke writes “My Papa’s Waltz” to reflect back to his sentimental memories with his father. In brief, Roethke leaves the audience with an unclear understanding of what the meaning of the poem is. In discussions of “My Papa’s Waltz,” one controversial issue is the father casually plays with the son. On the other hand, some readers argue that the father is abusing his son straightforwardly. However, after contemplating the context of the poem and gathering information from the text, it has become undeniably clear that the poem is about the father abusing his son. Ultimately, Roethke writes “My Papa’s Waltz” to illustrate a picture of his nostalgic remembrance for the readers.

The poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke is about a young boy with an abusive father. Their relationship is complicated. The father’s abusive behavior is being compared to the dance, the waltz. The waltz is supposed to be a happy, fun dance yet in this case it is not. The theme of this poem is abuse. The young boy is being abused by his father yet still seems to love him and want attention from him. The author uses similes, irony, metaphors, and imagery to help build the theme of abuse through figurative language. He also uses certain words and portrays them in a different meaning to help build the theme of abuse through word choice. Lastly, Roethke uses assonance, alliteration, juxtaposition, and rhymes to help build the overall theme