The poem a story pays homage to the dynamics of the family unit. The boy has recieved a holy spark, like ET's glowing finger touching him; The finger being the father, the glow being the nurturing warm emotion of the stories and ET being the "body" of their relationship. Similiarly to ET himself both characters, father and son, are curious how far they can push their relationship. The father has given him life sparking him with his sperm (after lighting a match with his mother) and now he sends sparks his way and fans the flames in order to do what he can to rear the boy emotionally stable. That is why even though the boy is a tender five the father realizes he has run out of stories and the boy regardless of what they share will have to grow up. He will have to loosen the ties that bind to find his own identity. That day is still far off but will start when he enters the first grade next year, formally beggining his schooling. The son will rebel and through finding his independence he might impact the paternal bond.
The son as nature gives us will have a metaphorical oedipus complex. He will want to do better emotionally in terms of pleasure and be more succesful professionally and socially than his father. The father is passing on his heritage by giving. He is recieving only what he values in the wholesomeness of the giving. As the boy grows he will move on to giving and taking simultaneously which is the natural next step for the boy in the order of things. The father wants to stay close to his son and like ET he thinks about "phoning home." Will the boy stay in touch. These kind of thoughts are not the mindset a father should have as it is dangerous to his well-being. From the fathers brooding we reach a catharsis. This is natural; it follows an ordered pattern. The father gives his stories to the son. In the end he gives ultimately by letting his son go form his individual story. This is the ultimate love as he has ket his son up emotionally telling him stories so that the son can tell his own.
Please identify the author and title (in quotes) of the poem
ReplyDelete"A Story" by Li-Young-Lee.
ReplyDeleteWhat might or might not happen before or after the poem as we have it is not the concern of analysis, since that would be another poem. That the father, in the poem,imagines his son's future actions, tells us something about the poem's conflicts; we can't know, from the fact of the poem as given, that the son will have an oediapal complex, but we can say something about the father's anxieties. The poem also suggests somthing about the function and limitations about varioius kinds of "stories"; the poem, itself is, of course, a narrative...in any case, focus on and refer to specific details of the poem itself--working though images and image patterns toward possible interpretations. For come guidance on this one, check my blog post from that week, my comments on others' blogs on Li Young-Lee (both in current blogs and previous class blogs), and the study materials on Bb
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