Relationships are an essential part of life. They keep us grounded and sane. Without all of our daily interactions, our mental and physical health would decline. Theodore Roethke describes a relationship between a father, son, and mother in his poem, “My Papa’s Waltz.” To some, the poem is about an abusive father who abuses his son while the mother ignores the scene. You can label each character in the poem by their role. Roethke’s poem shows one of the most common archetypes in literature: the role of a victim, bystander, and abuser.
The beginning of the poem shows that the father is drunk enough to make “a small boy dizzy” (Roethke 2). The boy is seen as “[hanging] on like death” in the first stanza while he is waltzing with his father (Roethke