Analysis of Three Pieces of Literature Essay

3 Pieces of Literature Art

During this course I have read many great poems, plays, and short stories. My favorite poem was My Papas Waltz by Theodore Roethke. Even more intriguing about that particular poem was what I found out after researching it. I had never read Everyday Use by Alice Walker but I found it very interesting. It reminded me a lot of my own family. A Theme for English B by Langston Hughes was a eye opener for me on racism during that time frame. As far as being able to compare these literature pieces I dont know if I can do that. I can describe each pieces.

Many of the words and phrases in Theodore Roethkes poem, "My Papas Waltz," could be misinterpreted as indicating physical abuse between the father and son in the poem without a prior knowledge of Roethkes relationship with his immigrant father, Otto Roethke. A close reading and analysis of the poem and research into Roethkes life help to avoid such misreadings.

According to Karl Malkoff, Roethke had a deep, almost religious respect for his father. This respect was religious (in a Christian sense) because Roethke had an admiration for his fathers ability, yet he was fearful of his strength. To the young Roethke, who had followed his father around the greenhouses that his father owned and worked in, Otto was the man who made the flowers grow, and like so many young boys, Roethke idolized his father.

Of course, the young Roethke also had good reason to fear and respect his fathers firmness. According to Malkoff, Roethke once saw his father bring a couple of poachers to a halt with his rifle and then go and slap their faces for interrupting his work. "Otto Roethke, a Prussian through and through, was strong and firm, but his strength was, for his son, a source of both admiration and fear, of comfort and restriction" (Malkoff 4). This fear, combined with the love and awe-inspired dependency that a son has for his father, comes out clearly in the poem.

Many readers of the first stanza jump to the conclusion that the father and son in this poem are locked in some sort of dark dance of death and the boy is in some sort of danger. Certainly, the father and son are not "waltzing" in the conventional sense; they are horseplaying. The rythmic romp of the waltz can be felt in the poets iambic trimetrical quatrains.

"The whiskey on your breath

Could make a small boy dizzy;

But I hung on like death:

Such waltzing was not easy." (lines 1-4)

In this first stanza, Roethke mentions the whisky on his fathers breath but certainly does not portray him as a stumbling drunk. Many people drink alcohol in the evening without becoming intoxicated. Also, the boy "hung on like death" (line 3) not because he was terrified or feared for his life but because he was having fun and did not want to fall off . . . such waltzing is not easy!

Reothke continues,

"We romped until the pans

Slid from the kitchen shelf;

My mothers countenance

Could not unfrown itself." (lines 5-8)

This was a rowdy waltz and the dancing pair did make quite a ruckus but in lines seven and eight Roethke says that the mothers countenance could not unfrown itself, which implies that the mother herself could stop frowning if she chose to. He suggests that the mother was angry because her pots and pans were flying around, but was really trying not to laugh at the spectacle of father and son dancing together. If the boy were being hurt and the waltz was not in good fun, his mother probably would have reacted with more than a mere frown.

Reothkes third stanza goes on with,

"The hand that held my wrist

Was battered on one knuckle;