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My Papa's Waltz Meaning

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In the story My Papa’s Waltz, the narrator has described the relationship with the father without actually saying it. The meaning of the story is hidden within the words that is about an abusive father. Without any negative signs of abuse that is not stated in the words, but the meaning is all about abuse. The narrator disguised the meaning by going with music and having a rhyme poem. Abuse was never stated to have a more meaning why the narrator never thought it was abuse. The mother has nothing but a “countenance” expression to the actions the father is doing to his child. It can show that the narrator didn’t know anything better but to love. Although the poem may sound simple and easy to understand, My Papa’s Waltz is really a complex story …show more content…

There is a cycle of the negative actions that cause his father to get drunk, however, his father feelings has been expressed by actions not words. For example, the says “you beat time on my head” meaning the how rough the father has been hitting him (Roethke 968). The narrator makes it same to make it fit with the meter of the music to be disguised. Dancing of the music which seems to be more of a beating to the narrator that says “at every step you missed/ my right ear scraped a buckle” (Roethke 969). As he is dancing with the narrator the father would hit him if he messes up. His father hits the narrator with a belt to his ear without the father actually knowing because his is drunk. The abusive father is doing all of this actions without actually knowing, but still letting go of his fraustion from his work towards his son. The narrator does not state any abusive towards his relationship with his father making it parental love and abusive relationship. This would first look like a dance with his father, however; My Papa’s Waltz is really a unbreakable relationship with his parent that makes the story more of dance to hide the actually meaning to show both sides of the story. The boy interrupts what it seems what is happens which is a dance, but in reality it is a beaten that he can’t

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In “My Papa’s Waltz,” poet Theodore Roethke uses sensory details and ambiguous language to persuade both the boy and the reader that the boy still loves his father, despite him being an alcoholic. On the third sentence of the first stanza, Roethke uses ambiguous language by stating: “But I hung on like death. Such waltzing was not easy.” Although this plainly means that the boy was holding onto his father without ease, it can be interpreted in another way; the boy still loves his father, even though it is hard to love him with his alcoholism at times, and the boy still loves his father very much. The boy is reflecting on this idea while waltzing with his

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Instead the author, Giovanni, allows them to have a shallow conversation with very few expressed words. Behind the simple words, there are more complex issues being harbored by both the grandmother and granddaughter. There are some key words in the poem such as “proud” (5) that describes how the grandmother felt about her rolls and “dependent” (9) that describes how the family needs the grandmother and her traditions. Also, the whole poem centers around the rolls of the grandmother, but it really centers around family bonds and traditions. These words, although key, are never share directly between the grandmother and granddaughter.

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When you and Mamma get old, I’ll feed you from this wooden dish.’” By then, the parents had realized that the way they were treating Grandfather was extremely disrespectful, and they were very ashamed. The parents changed their ways, and learned to be kind to him, and take care of him. The mood of this folktale is more about realization and changing your ways as controverting the poem’s mood. When reading this folktale, you feel upset for Grandfather at first, but towards the end, the mood is comforting and soothing knowing that Grandfather is going to be okay, and treated

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The fact, that most people infer this poem to be about abuse is reasonable. however, according to Roethke’s biography, his father passed away due to cancer in 1923, when he was just 14, basically forcing him to become head of the family. In results to this, Roethke suffered from depression and other mental illnesses, and not to mention, his mental breakdown in 1935. Influenced by this tragic event, he then later wrote “My Papa’s Waltz” in 1942. Nevertheless, with his use of diction and sensory imagery, he successfully provided readers with an unexpected controversy.

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Sanders explains how his father compulsively “drank” as a means of telling how it initially led to the end of him (182).He acknowledges how his father’s daily drinking finally succeeded by catching up to him with death and drinking becoming a thing of the past. Sanders goes on to explain the various siting’s of his father wayward drinking habits. On a daily basis Sanders would “slip into the garage.. to see [His] father tipping back the flat green bottles of wine, the brown cylinders of whiskey, the cans of beer disguised in paper bags” (182). Sanders switches from explanation into narration as he reveals his true feelings from within his horrific boundaries of his father. He narrates on a routine childhood memory of his dad coming home from work drunk and sparking a quarrel with his wife and how he would find cover and “curl fearfully… listening” (182).

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Back in the day, children were being abused by their parents, but it is still happening in today’s society. “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke explains his life when he was still a child back in the 1900s. Theodore Roethke was born on May 25, 1908 and lived until August 1, 1963. He had an abusive father growing up and the poem gives the reader a taste of what he had to go through, in the form of waltzing. Roethke uses literary devices, such as metaphor, imagery, and rhyme to allure the reader into his poem.

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In a similar way, he introduces the other side of his father, the drunkard. Sanders holds that, his father transforms into “a stranger, who is as fearful as any graveyard lunatic” (Sanders 243). Sanders hints on how his father’s drunken habit transformed the environment around his family. He scribes on how a cloud of fear formed among his family members in instances where their father came home drunk.

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In the Poem “My Papa’s Waltz;” written by Theodore Roethke, the poem presents a somber tone through its usage of negative words and persuasive poetic craft. Throughout the poem “My Papa’s Waltz,” Theodore Roethke uses forceful words such as death, romped, unfrown, battered, and beat to provide the reader with tenderness for the character. This choice of words is used by the author likely to create the image of someone being abused and harmed. Consequently, many will argue that the story is about a son dancing with his drunken father. Some examples of this include when Roethke writes “The Whiskey on your breath.

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Throughout the poem, an extended metaphor is utilized to compare the relationship to a light waltz. When his father doesn’t agree with him, the two often engage in altercations that leave

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In line three stanza one, the intoxicated father dances with his son which becomes highly uncomfortable. Mainly due to the fact that he his drunk and that are being having getting beat and abused by papa waltz I can understand his

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Meanwhile, Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” the speaker implies abuse through a metaphor about dancing, where, in lines 5, 6, and 11- 13 the speaker vaguely mentions abuse, saying “We romped until the pans/ slid from the kitchen shelf”, “at every step you missed/ my right ear scraped a buckle./ you beat time on my head.” These lines imply the father is abusive, boisterously beating the child in the kitchen so much so that pans fell, without actually saying so. In both poems, the speaker experiences abuse from the father figure in their

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My papa’s waltz his/her dad was drunk while his son/daughter trying to teach waltz and in Grape sherbet his/her dad made recipe of swirled snow. “But I hung on like death/ Such waltzing was not easy” (line 3 and 4). “Dad appears with his

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In “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, the author uses rhyming couplets and imagery to demonstrate that unconditional love is the effort you put in for someone no matter the circumstances. Roethke displayed this idea by utilizing imagery to illustrate the working life of the father in the line, “With a palm caked hard by dirt / Then waltzed me off to bed” (Roethke), this line articulates how the father works hard for the family during the day; so much to the point of his hands bwing caked with dirt with dirt, but still comes home and shows up for his son by dancing with him, and still putting in effort even after his tireless workday. Furthermore, Roethke’s poem also displays topics of relationships and family throughout the poem; these

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Now the father has transitioned from his hands, to his belt. To target the sons’ ear was not his purpose, but you could almost imagine the continuous beating with no intended target other than his son. The goal was to hurt him, does not matter where he hurt

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Diction has a strong affect on how readers interpret a passage. This is proven through Theodore Roethke’s poem, “My Papa’s Waltz”. The poem presents a boy roughhousing with his father. However, some critics see the roughhousing taking place as abusive, due to the negative word choice displayed throughout the poem. The author set a positive and negative tone throughout the poem, representing the respect and fear he had for his father.

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