Dr. Seuss's Are You My Daddy

Miranda Milwee

Fatherless Daughter With my thighs crammed uncomfortably into the grocery store basket child seat, I watched attentively as shoppers passed by me in the aisle. Mocking the lines from the famed Dr. Seuss’s Are You My Mother, with every guy that passed by me I questioned “Are YOU my Daddy?” with an innocent smirk on my face and my head titled to the side. My naiveté humored the passerby’s and they continued on about their day unknowing that my question was real, I did not know who my daddy was. At a young age, I was unaware that my parental situation was abnormal. My elementary school teachers would assign projects where we draw what our parents do for a living. I was always able to draw my mother bathing elderly people, dispatching

There was so much freedom in High School compared to Junior High! I was able to walk off campus and eat, hang out with my friends at the local mall, and awkwardly gaze at the cute senior boys from school. Sophomore year was great. I entered junior year of high school unbothered by the fact that my father did not have a role in my life. However, as my father realized that I was about to be a senior, he started reaching out more. Two-minute happy birthday phone calls wishing changed to 10-minute phone calls talking about school, family and life goals. I was open and receptive which is what brought us closer. Several phone calls later, my father told me he loved me. It was the first time in seventeen years that I heard him utter those words, but I could not reciprocate that love. It was impossible for me to love a man that I never knew and I never heard from my dad

Persepolis is about a young Vietnamese girl, named Hang, who has a rotten relationship with her mother and relies on her aunt to provide for her. I have since read the novel several times and I always find new ways in which I can relate to Hang. For example, my mother and I have never had a great relationship. I always thought that it was because we were polar opposites so we just disagreed on practically everything. In most ways that is the case, but Hang’s story made me realize that maybe the tension in our relationship was caused from financial stress of living in a single parent home. Just like Hang, my mother and I have always relied on my grandparents for financial support. In the novel, Hang’s aunt would help provide for Hang and take care of her, just like my grandparents do. The graphic novel Persepolis, was an epiphany moment where I realized that our financial situation has affected my relationship with my