My Papa's Waltz By Theodore Roethke

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When it comes to families, people tend to think about parents who are responsible with their children. That a family environment should be safe, fun for the child, and surrounded by loving and affectionate relatives. The poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke writes about a young child's life when the father comes home from work to the time the child is being sent to bed. When you are done reading this poem you think that child is being abused and not enjoying the time of their life but when you re-read the poem there's more to it then child being battered up. You start to see this connection between the father and the child when the child is being sent to bed.
The first main theme in the poem is that child is having fun with their father. …show more content…

As Roethke states, “The hand that held my wrist was battered on one knuckle.” (Roethke line 10-11). In this quote, the child states that their father’s knuckle is “battered” which could imply that he is a rough and abusive man but the quote starts off by saying that the father held the child’s wrist. Meaning that the father is infact gentle but gained his rough knuckles by doing hard labor. The author adds in another quote that states “With a palm caked hard in dirt.” (Roethke line 15). In this line, the author states why the father has hard knuckles in the first place. The father is a physical worker in order to provide for his family. The father is such a hard worker that there is dirt left on him from his manual labors. The fact that the dirt is described as caking in his hands implies that he works long hours at his job because a cake is something where all the ingredients are combined into one. The ingredients were once separate but after becoming a cake the ingredients are now one whole. This is what the author is stating about the dirt and the father’s hands. Since the father has worked so much, the dirt and his hands are now

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