In Li-Young Lee’s poem, Eating Alone, Lee uses many literary techniques such as imagery and tone to develop the speaker’s grief towards his father’s death. The poem is about a son who is mourning the loss of his father in which the fall brings back the memories of his father. When first reading this poem, it is very confusing and does not make much sense. Once the poem is analyzed, the reader can determine the distinction between life and death in the poem, where the speaker is missing the presence of their father. Imagery is a big factor in the poem for the speaker to communicate his themes of memory and loneliness. Lee uses the imagery to appeal to all 5 senses, where the reader can see, feel, hear, taste, and smell. The 5 senses …show more content…
The speaker talks about harvesting and cooking which are usually positive activities, but it creates an unhappy environment. All the speaker talks about are his father and his death, which the reader can conclude with evidence from the text. The speaker also uses a nostalgic tone to show the absence of his father in his life. The speaker cherished his memories with his father and regrets not doing more. In the very last line, the speaker says, “What more could I, a young man, want”(21), this represents the speaker’s youth and how his father should be there to mentor. The sarcasm in the text also creates a upsetting tome where the speaker does not deserve a lonely, and nostalgic life. But, the speaker lives through him and his father’s memories that cause him to forever be alone. In conclusion, Li-Young Lee uses many literary techniques in his poem, Eating Alone. The techniques, such as, imagery and tone, help create the theme of memory and loneliness throughout the poem. The poem is very simple and complex as the same time where the speaker is using simple everyday objects to represent life and death. Using those literary techniques, Lee creates a tone and image of grief over the father’s death where the speaker lives through his memories leaving him forever