Falling Into Place Analysis

(TS) In Sue Monk Kidd’s novel The Secret Life of Bees, Lily Owens does not have an empathetic relationship with her parents as a result of the loss of her mother and an abusive father; however, Lily gains a new family figure, August Boatwright, who shows her the true empathy that is present between a parent and their child. (PS) Lily Owens’s absence of a mother and a “real” father causes Lily not to have a relationship with her parents that is filled with affection for one another. (SS) When Lily lost her mother, Deborah Fontell, she was told that she had shot and killed Deborah. (SS) Lily would say, “I would meet her saying, ‘Mother forgive. Please forgive,’” and she would kiss my skin till I grew chapped and tell me I was not to blame”

“Many Rivers to Cross” written by June Jordan is about a young lady who goes through a difficult childhood which follows her to her adult life. Her father was not very much

Losing a parent is presumably an unthinkable concept for those lucky to have them alive, but sometimes the title of “parent” dies long before a body is placed in the ground. Toi Derricotte author of “Beginning Dialogues” unfortunately had to experience both the death of her mother’s title of “parent”, as well as her literal death. Derricotte’s parents had divorced when she was eighteen, and her father did not seem to play much of a role in her life; she was left to be raised by her mentally abusive mother. Her mother also had a tough road to walk growing up, having to face and deal with brutal issues like racism and bulling. Persevering through those tough times may be the underlining reason behind Derricotte’s mother’s negativity and abuse towards her daughter. Perhaps she just grew a thick skin at a very young age and had never learned how to feel, accept, or administer love. Derricotte’s had said: “She told me all my life she loved me, as if she completely forgot the hundred slights, humiliations, threats, and insinuations. Of course she loved me;

The “The Leaving” by Brigit Pegeen Kelly is a poem that depicts a young girl whose actions are influenced by a challenge insinuated by her father. The girl competes with the physical limitations her father placed on her in order to prove her worth to him and to herself. She exclaims, “My father said I could not do it, but all night I

Everyone has a father. No matter if the father is present in a child’s life or not, he still exists and takes that role. A father has a major impact on his child whether he knows it or not, and that impact and example shapes the child’s perspective on life, and on love. The authors, Robert Hayden and Lucille Clifton, share the impact of their fathers through poetry, each with their own take on how their fathers treated them. The poems “Forgiving My Father” and “Those Winter Sundays” have significant differences in the speaker’s childhood experiences, the tone of the works, and the imagery presented, which all relate to the different themes of each poem.

The memoir of Jeannette Walls had several characters, important people in her life. But, there was one specific character, her dad, that she had a close relationship with. Jeannette Walls grew up in poverty and always moved around. Her family was close, but Jeannette was closest to her father over anyone else. She loved and admired her father and defended him too. Her memoir, “The Glass Castle” is very popular. She is a grown-up now and cares about her parents. She offers to help them out of poverty, but they resist. Jeannette certainly cares for both parents, but her father has a special place in her heart. Jeannette has a special relationship with her father because she admired his heroicness, she got to pick Venus as her star, and he helped her and distracted her from being scared and in pain.

In the poem “To a Daughter Leaving Home” by Linda Pastan is filed with metaphors and symbols that represent the feeling of a child growing up and moving out onto their own. There comes a time when every parent must send off their child into the world, and these parents feel a multitude of things when sending them off. It paints a picture of a father teaching his young daughter to ride a bike, but uses this image to represent a child growing up. The mixed feeling of pride and fear as the child grows up and moves out of the nest. The use of first person past tense shows us that the narrator is recalling the time they taught their child to ride a bike and are reliving that experience with the child moving out again. The fright of watching your child speed down the road towards life is portrayed from the start and continues throughout the poem. A good parent is always worried about their child’s wellbeing; they will always worry as they watch their children head straight to the destruction that comes with living life. Though the good parent will try their best to teach their child how to ride their bike into adulthood. This poem uses imagery, word choice, and metaphor to express the fears a parent has when sending their child out on their own into the world.

Suicide is a sensitive topic for most people, and in the GQ article “Are You Sure You Want To Quit The World”, Nadya Labi creates a strong ethos as she writes a nonfiction article about an online predator who preyed on people going on suicide chat sites. In the article Nadya writes about how a man named William Melchert-Dinkel under the online pseudonym Li Dao would go on suicide chat rooms and do his best to convince people to go through with their suicidal thoughts and hang themselves, and Celia Blay, with the help of another woman Kat Lowe, do what they can to hunt him down. In doing this she creates a nonfiction piece the manifests itself as typical hero and rival story, a story in which the hero, protagonist, or good-doer attempts to stop the villain, rival, antagonist or wrong doer from whatever harm they with to inflict. Even more specifically, Labi piece can be read as a detective story, in which the hero goes through trials and research in order to hunt down a criminal whose identity is often initially unknown.

The author Linda Pastan, imagines a parent running breathlessly to regain her strength from the ending connection she once shared with her daughter in her poem, “To a Daughter Leaving Home.” It’s a mother’s biggest fear when it comes to their child or children leaving home while going their own ways when the time is right. This poem is based on childhood, fatherhood, and even motherhood.

In addition to revealing the author’s purpose of why one cannot have both innocence and compassion, one can see another change in Lizabeth’s advancement in becoming a compassionate person when she hears the sound of her father crying. Due to Lizabeth’s father situation with having no job, Lizabeth starts to feel empathy for her father when she realizes the situation the family is in. Throughout her father’s life, Lizabeth’s mother has been the one working for everyone to have food and shelter. With this in mind, usually men are the ones who work and provide for the family but in this case, Lizabeth’s family was the opposite. The roles of her parents are reversed with her mother becoming the leader of the family.

Past studies have shown the influence of paternal-involvement to an individual’s self-perception (Schaick & Stolberg 101), and ability to form a romantic commitments (Haaz, et al. 167). The novel The World Before Us by Aislinn Hunter underlines the same theme of the importance of father-daughter relationships, and represents the concept by exploring Jane’s relationship journeys. The novel weaves through past and present, which helps trace Jane’s development by looking closely at her paternal relationship and how it may have affected her future relationships. Hunter develops the relationships of Jane through the motif of sensations, specifically through stares, touches, and hearing. The effect of Henri’s lack of paternal connection to Jane

Eveline’s mother died when she was young and she promised her mother she would take care of her father. For years Eveline was tied down to this promise and

I was scared half to death along with Alexander, I ask “What is going on?”

When I was at the age of three my mother was a very beautiful woman with the vicarious thrill of being a mother of two. My father who worked efficiently at his job of employment but yet was rarely at home to savor the joy of seeing his son’s very first steps. Living as a mother she often grew dreary of his actions; the feeling of depression and loneliness slowly crept upon her. On my fourth birthday my father of course worked once more, so my mother felt banal and brought him a piece of cake at work. As she walked through the doors she realized that another woman was perched upon my father's lap, and with this she grew furious. The red dress she wore complemented her face as it began to alter its color into a darker shade a red. The more she pondered on the thought of the hurt and pain she felt at that moment the more she realized what she needed to do not knowing that it would affect the life of her kids dramatically.

Rachel said goodnight to her father then headed to bed. Little did she know that would be the last time she spoke to him. It seemed just like any morning in the Smith household to Rachel. She got out of bed, and she began getting ready for school. In the middle of her daily routine, she suddenly realized it seemed unusually quiet at home, so she went downstairs in search of her parents. There is no one in sight. She went to her parents bedroom to only find her mother sleeping in her bed. This is no surprise to Rachel because her parents had got under each other’s skin more than usual these last couple days. She did not think anything of it; she figured he would be back later that night. Once Rachel returned home from school, her dad is still not home. Days, weeks, even months had passed, and Rachel still had not seen her father since that day. Unfortunately, many families face this same problem of not having a father figure in their life at some point. To some children, they do not know of a time where they ever had a father or even who he is. Even though sometimes having a father in a family is overlooked, they actually have a considerable effect on their daughter’s lives, such as self-confidence, career options, academic achievements, and their relationships.