Grace Paley A Conversation With My Father

Something to carry

The story “A Conversation With My Father” by Grace Paley, really relates to me. The narrator is the daughter of a father who is in bed due to heart problems. The father asked the narrator to write him a story to which the daughter does. However, the father does not agree with the ending of the story. He believes that pain and tragedy is part of life and should be included in the story. The narrator did not agree with him yet she still kept rewriting the story to please her father. My father and I did not see eye to eye on a lot of things. We used to constantly disagree on everything but I still wanted his approval on the decisions I made. “In your own life, too, you have to look it in the face” (1100), the narrator’s

My father also believed that I was living in a fairytale world and always told me that I needed to realize that it is not how the world works. He believed that I needed to wake up before I get burned by reality. After four years of not having my father around due to his passing from cancer, I appreciate all of his advice. I now see my father’s point of view and I find myself agreeing with a lot of the things he used to say. I wonder if it is because I am getting older or because I am more like my father then I will ever admit. I miss my father and I find myself wondering if he would approve of some of the decisions I have made. I found myself really relating to the Hunger Artist from the short” The Hunger Artist” by Franz Kafka. The hunger artist really wanted people to be impressed by his ability to go months without eating. He had the fame and honor, yet he was still not pleased, "glory honored by the world, yet in spite of that mostly in a dark mood that became even darker because no one took it seriously” ( 713). He was not satisfied with his work until people acknowledged and praised him for it. The hunger artist was not hungry for food but he was hungry for people to approve his work. I wanted my father to approve of my work and