Respecting In Amy Ling's 'Grandma'

In Song of Solomon, the father provokes fear in his children. Oddly, Milkman's sisters seem to look forward to the anger and tension of their father. Morrison writes, "The way he mangled their grace, wit, and self-esteem was the single excitement of their days...Without the tension and drama he(the father) ignited, they might not have known what to do with themselves" ,and the sisters "waited eagerly for any hint of him.(11)" Rather than expressing love for their children verbally, the father figures often show their love through actions and through providing for the children. We see an example of this in the poem "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden. The father in this poem wakes especially early in the morning to chop wood, start a fire, and make the house warm for his son. Despite the father's loving actions, the son speaks indifferently to him and never thanks him.

An ideal father should be someone who nurtures and lovingly cares for his offspring, and some kids are blessed by this opportunity growing up to spend time with their father, even if their parents are divorced. As the years go by our fathers grow older and we too grow old. We start to reminisce about the nostalgic times we had when we were young. In the poems “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, and “Tips From My Father” by Carol Ann Davis; the authors draw from different life events, in which each communicate a happy memory with their fathers to the audience, and conclude a common theme surrounding a bond with their fathers, which can be inferred through how the parents care about their kids and show affection to them by giving their

For some people, the topic of family is very controversial. While some family dynamics might seem like ones who are placed on an advertisement for a Loews magazine, most families have underlying problems that take place behind the scenes. It is undeniable that putting two works into conversation with each other can have several advantages. For example, in the poems “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, and Lucille Clifton’s “forgiving my father” they both portray their childhood memories that aren 't so picture perfect. While these poems highlight the wrongdoings of their father’s, in the end they both end up forgiving their fathers despite their lack of care. Although the authors portray it to us in different ways, by comparing both of these texts to each other their similarities and differences allow us to create a more well-rounded understanding of the author’s themes of the importance of forgiveness in the family.

In “My Papa’s Waltz” by Roethke and “Those Winter Sundays” by Hayden, the two narrators speak about their fathers in a way that shows there were two different sides to their fathers. One side was abusive and strict, while the other side was loving and caring. Each narrator has a different attitude toward their feelings for their fathers. Roethke has a more fun and understanding view of his father, while Hayden has a more cold and uncaring attitude toward his father. Both Hayden and Roethke talk about their father’s character flaws in their poems. Even though there are flaws in their fathers, both the narrators learn to over see

In Stephen Bandy’s “‘One of My Babies’: The Misfit and The Grandmother”, the author argues that the Misfit and the Grandmother of Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard To Find” are ultimately the same character. Specifically, that the Misfit is the more evolved version of the Grandmother. Additionally, the article focuses on weakening of the Grandmother’s character on both the part of the reader, and of Flannery O’Connor herself; noting that it is purposeless to view the Grandmother's character superficially, as her true character lies beneath the mask of southern charm. The article then attempts to tie together these two subjects by discussing the theme of grace and explaining why it is inapplicable within the story. While offering many

While the poems portray two different perspectives of a father, both poems feature a torn relationship between the narrator and the narrator’s father. In Hayden’s poem, the narrator talks of his relationship with his father by describing the services he did with, “No one ever thanked him” (5). Among those who never shared their appreciation for what the father did is the narrator himself. The fifth line of the poem suggests that the narrator and his father did not speak comfortably or frequently when he was a child, and he obviously regrets it. The father does many things for his son and family, yet the narrator does not thank him for any of it. The son did not appreciate his father’s acts of love until it was too late. Comparatively, Clifton’s poem features a daughter who has a broken relationship with her father because of the resentment she

As we get older we tend to reflect more on our life and get our priorities together. We tend to realize who and what is important, the people who mean the most to us and the ones we can’t live without. Who would those significant individuals be for us? For most people it would be their parents. In the poems “My Father’s Song” by Simon J. Ortiz, and “My Mother” by Ellen Bryant Voigt, both writers express their emotion towards a parent. The poems are similar in many ways simply because they share a parent child relationship, they are also vastly different. “My Fathers Song” is a poem about a son who lost his father and is grieving and referring back to old memories, reflecting on their past and the wonderful time he had with his father. “My Mother” on the other hand is a poem about a daughter who lost her mother and is having a difficult time coping as she reflects on the decisions she made as a child and how that affected her relationship with her mother. Despite their differences, the two poems share a true connection of love towards their parent. Most notably “My Fathers Song” and “My Mother” differ in the relationship with their parent, the settings in which the memories they hold of their parents take place, and who they are mourning over, yet the two have a strong emphasis on love.

The grandma is rewarded with grace right at the end of her life. Throughout the story, the grandma focuses on labeling people as “good” in her own definition.

The Tone of “Daddy” and “My Papa’s Waltz” is what differentiates the two child-father relationships in the poems from one another with “Daddy” having a tone of hate and fear

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 journey she takes in this story represents her role in life. She is an old black lady living in a white society with no education. Many things make this journey very tough: it is very cold, the path is uphill, and the woman is very old. The trip she makes shows just how determined the woman is to make it through life. Whether or not her grandson was dead or alive, to me, does not have much effect on the story. Either way, the woman making the trip for him shows her devotion to him and how much she loves him dead or alive.

Both Poems My Father in the Navy and Daddy shows the importance of that relationship between fathers and daughters. In which the relationship between a father and daughter can impact them in both in negative and positive aspects. An example of this is in both poems the speakers had to deal with absent fathers. Both

“Young people need something stable to hang on to- a cultural connection, a sense of their own past, a hope for their own future. Most of all, they need what grandparents can give them.” This quote by Jay Kesler hits the nail on the head. There is so much to learn and to glean from our grandparents. I know not everyone is lucky enough to have grandparents as they either have passed away, or maybe there just isn’t an enjoyable relationship between the grandparents and their grandkids. For those whose grandparents are still alive, I urge them to reach out, visit them and learn about history from their perspective, learn what it was like back in the 20s, 30s and 40s. If you don’t have living grandparents, go visit a nursing home! My mother has worked at nursing homes since I was a little girl and let me tell you, those who don’t have dementia, love talking about their younger years, and about how life was for them when they were kids. My favorite time of the year was summer time, not due to school being out, but for the reason that it was the time I got to spend with just my grandparents, discovering facts about our family, developing home economical skills like gardening, baking and the inevitable chores and of course going on trips.

As my grandmother grew older and wiser, she taught me a thing or two along the way. She taught me to

Each grandmother represents one of the realms I have described. Its structure is particularly helpful as it alternatively presents the protagonist's conversations with her mother, which are full of questions and doubts about the things she cannot understand in her visits to each of her grandmothers. The ending of "The Two Grandmothers" shows how the binary opposition existing between a despised black and an overvalued white way of life makes it easier for the protagonist to let herself be led by the mainstream of American influence. However, as senior herself has put it, "...those very same people in later life come to realise—come to appreciate—the real culture, the traditional culture. So I guess there is hope for her" (Glaser, 1994: