Congratulations to Antonio, this week’s Essay of the Week recipient. He is our second two-time winner. Antonio blends solid analysis (particularly in his structure and point of view paragraphs) with sophisticated language. Leave comments about what you like!
Insatiable Desires
In the poem, “A Story” by Li-Young Lee, the author conveys a father’s torment in not being able to provide the stories that his son desires. The son seeks new stories from his father because the son has heard them all. However the father is unable to respond with a new story. This causes the father great anxiety and causes him to imagine a bleak future for him and his son. In order to describe the emotions that the father is feeling toward his son, Lee uses structure, point of view, and tone.
The use of structure in this poem shows the complex relationship that the father has with his son and how the father feels about his inability to satisfy his son’s desires. The author separates the poems into three distinct units, each highlighting a different stage of the boy’s feelings toward his father. The stages of the boy’s love are separated by the different stanzas in the poem. The beginning of the poem shows the boy’s love for his father; the boy sits on his father’s lap, eagerly waiting for a story. This is shown in the second stanza where it says, “His five-year-old son waits in his lap” (3). In the middle, the boy’s attitude toward his father dramatically shifts as he is packing up so he can leave his father. This is shown when it says, “but the boy is packing his shirts” (15). The shift in the boy’s feelings toward his father is shown when the father tries to tell stories to convince his son to stay, while the son remains unfazed by his father’s efforts. Finally, in the last stanza, the boy’s feelings go back to normal and he is back to loving and depending on his father when the setting returns to the present and the father is still unable to tell a new story. This is shown when it says. “but the boy is here” (19). The author’s use of structure shows the relationship that the father has with his son.
The author’s use of point of view further displays the complex relationship that the father has with his son. The author uses third-person (limited) point of view in order to describe the feelings of the father. It is third-person (limited) point of view, because the poem only uses the father’s point of view and does not allow the reader into the thoughts of the son. The author initially displays the father’s point of view when his son asks for him to tell a new story. The father feels that even amongst all the knowledge that surrounds them, he is unable to do anything for his son. This is explicitly described when it says, “In a room full of books in a world of stories, he can recall not one” (5-8). The father is feels that even if he has all the resources around him, he is unable to provide what his son wants. The father’s point of view is further shown when the son is packing his belongings and the father tries to persuade him to stay. The father is shown as desperate in his attempts to persuade his son into staying. The father’s point of view in this situation is best described when he exclaims “don’t go” (11). Through the author’s use of point of view, the relationship between the father and son is clearly shown.
Finally, the author uses a desperate tone in order to explain the relationship between the father and his son. The tone of the words used in the poem reveals the father as a desperate man, struggling to please his son. The rash tone is specifically shown when the father is trying to stop his son from leaving. The father exclaims, “don’t go”, a venturesome attempt at making his son stay once his attempts at story-telling have failed. The father has failed in persuading his son to stay using normal means and had to resort to begging. The act of the father begging his son to stay show the father’s desperation and this act of rashness further shows the complex relationship that the father has with his son.
Through the author’s use of literary devices, Lee succeeds in showing a father’s relationship with his son. She uses structure to illustrates the change in the the son’s feelings toward his father. The point of view shows how the father feels about not being able to satisfy the desires of his son and the use of tone illustrates the father’s feelings of desperation in not being able to get his son to stay.
