Preview

What Shall He Tell That Son By Carl Sandburg

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
192 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
What Shall He Tell That Son By Carl Sandburg
The poem “What Shall He Tell That Son,” a piece by Carl Sandburg, is an elaborate poem in which the author discusses the messages of a father to a son who is “nearing manhood.” In the poem, the father advises his son for him to be able to understand the changes in his life. As a father, he knows that there are no shortcuts in life but there is always another way in order to live a life with meaning and satisfaction. As the father said, “Life is hard; be steel; be a rock,” but it doesn’t always have to be that way. Life is also a “soft loam,” and sometimes the son just need to “be gentle” and “go easy.” It’s true that in order to get far in life, someone must be strong. But, that’s not really the case, as sometimes a “frail flower…has sometimes

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The main themes of this poem are family relationships and communication. In this poem the author says "And he said nothing". In this quote we see the lack of communication between the parents and the son. Even though the family had good intentions for their son, it wasn't really in his best interest, or what he really wanted. The son did not say anything to his parents about not wanting to work at the bank. He never complained about anything, but just went on to graduate, and went along with whatever his parents wanted and told him to do. Therefore this tells us that the son wanted to work outside of the bank, because he felt trapped and caged when he was inside the bank. This is shown by the author saying "Like a young bear inside his teller's cage, his axe-hewn hands upon paper bills, aching with empty strength and throttled rage". His parents never knew that he wanted to work on the farms, because of the lack of communication between them. These quotes and information explain that the lack of communication between families is not good, and you should have good family relationships. The author is trying to tell us to listen what your children have to say, because parents always right.…

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The author uses syntax to portray the experiences of the father by using repetition. The son's coming of age is affected by this through the passing of knowledge gained by these experiences. Throughout the passage. Repetition of sentences beginning with “He knew” depict the knowledge the father has gained through his past experiences. The boy learns from these and develops his own sense of understanding of the world that is mainly influenced by his father. This is significant to the reader because it focuses on the fact that the father is no longer around to share…

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the beginning of the poem, the son refers to the father as “Baba” which shows the affectionate and innocent side of the boy when he is little. The boy is pleading with his dad to tell him a story, yet the roles are reversed later when the father is begging for the son to allow him to tell a story to him. This ironic switch of roles shows the complex relationship as the father is not in the position of authority that he should be in to begin with. The father is supposed to be the leader and role model for the son, and the father is worried about things changing in the future. He sees the point where the son is a grown man and is no longer in need of his father for everything. When the son becomes a man, he will no longer have the same innocent and affectionate characteristics he has now, and he will rely on his father in a different way. However, again the father is failing the son in his present need for a story therefore setting the precedent that the father will not fulfill the needs of the son and that he is not reliable because he cannot live in the moment. Relationships in themselves are complex as they grow and change overtime, but the father is unable to enjoy the different stages of his relationship with his son because he is constantly worried about the…

    • 831 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Story By Li-Young Lee

    • 410 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Time has the tendency to impact everyone and everything. In the poem “A Story” Li-Young Lee reveals the intimate yet short lived relationship of the father and the son through the use of dialogue, conflict and point of view to hint at the inevitably of children branching out and possibly surpassing their parents. Emphasized through the differing perspectives of the father and son Lee highlights the innocence of young children and parents and their changing relationship over time.…

    • 410 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    During his childhood, the son faces exposure from two very different parents. One of which believes in the preservation of life and moral values, whereas the mother believes in self-destruction and inconsideration towards everyone. Overall, the father has the most profound impact upon the son. Through their southward journey, the father and son share several successful and horrible experiences together. Throughout occasions such as narrowly escaping death from cannibals and plundering an underground bunker, the father and son have grown a strong, loving bond. Unfortunately, this developing relationship does not last forever, due to the father’s terminal illness. After his inevitable death, a stranger graciously offers salvation to the lost son. This salvation comes in the form of a loving, holy community that graciously takes the son in as their own. The 8-year-old boy, manages the unthinkable – survival. The son owes his survival entirely to his father. In a post-apocalyptic world where resources are few and far between, protecting the son from all levels of threats, so that the son can one day become self-sufficient, is nothing short of…

    • 2407 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Child Called “It” by David Pelzer is his own autobiography of his life as a child being abused by his alcoholic mother, Catherine Roerva Pelzer, who isolates him from the family, then abuses him, and nearly killed him through starvation, poisoning, and once stabbing him. Since Mother starved him for days, he began to steal food in order to survive, and when she finds out he has stolen food, she abuses him with her own “games”. Dave reflects on the “good times” in his childhood, because Mother was once a wonderful, loving mom, but the drinking habit, illness, and Father being gone took over her life, leaving both emotional and physical scars on her child which will haunt him for life. His father, Stephen Joseph Pelzer, a fireman in San Francisco, is a frightened man who as watches Dave is beaten, starved, and humiliated. Mother has stopped calling him by name; instead she would refer him as “the boy” to “it”. He was starved for 10 consecutive days, stabbed, forced to eat his brother’s diaper and a spoonful of ammonia, burned over a gas stove, stayed in the bathroom with ammonia resulting in a near fatal outcome, smashed his face into the mirror while screaming "I'm a bad boy", lying in the bathtub naked with freezing water for hours.…

    • 427 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He is mainly worried for himself when his father is not around. When the boy was sick he tells his father, “Don’t go away” (247). When his father is dying, the boy tells him: “Just take me with you. Please” (279). He feels as if he cannot survive in such a horrible world without the love and support of his father. The boy eventually finds other “good guys” and realizes it is best for him to move on in the world and not give up.…

    • 642 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    When he tells his father, his father responds, “There is no one to see.” The father than states that, “they must go now”. The boy gets very upset and the father questions, “Do you want to die? Is that what you want?” When the boy responds, “I don’t care,” the father gets upset and expresses to the boy that he, “musn’t say that” (McCarthy 85). This is a primary example of the father reassuring the boy still has hope. The father not only makes sure the boy has hope, he also tries to give the boy hope. He gives the boy hope by telling them they are not going to die soon. This is proven in the novel when the boy asks, “Are we going to die” and the man says, “Sometime. Not…

    • 1836 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Instead of showering his son with love and understanding, he makes Norton feel guilty in his childish behaviors. He lectures him about less fortunate children and acts of sharing that are difficult for the young boy to…

    • 1807 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Chocolate War

    • 401 Words
    • 2 Pages

    questioning the direction of his life. He wonders if his own life will turn out like his father’s, without any…

    • 401 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Evil and Passage

    • 1025 Words
    • 5 Pages

    4. "Lee smiled. "'My father said that she was a strong woman, and I believe a strong woman may be stronger than a man, particularly if she happens to have love in her heart. I guess a loving woman is almost indestuctible (354)."'…

    • 1025 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    My Papas Waltz Analysis

    • 668 Words
    • 3 Pages

    This gives the audience an idea of the intensity that the little boy is experiencing. Roethke the moves to the third stanza were he incorporates a metaphor “At every step you missed” meaning because of the fathers bad habits he missed parts of his sons life that were important to the son. The author whether he meant to generalize the sons age or not, he gives us a clue of this when he says” My right ear scraped a buckle “. You should notice that Roethke uses the syllable “a” instead of “his” this points out the boys love for his father, and his attitude that his dad could do no wrong. As the author moves to produce the forth stanza he emphasizes the fact that his dad did work hard with imagery “With a palm caked hard by dirt”. Roethke then moves to create an assonance effect by rhyming “hard by dirt “and “to your shirt”. The author then ends with capitalizing on that perfect parent attitude, “Still clinging to your shirt “. This could also be a son wishing for the return of his father. The lucidity and cheerfulness of the rhythm succeed to some extent in hiding the pathos and resentment in the poem. It also exhibits cause and effect because of dad’s alcoholism, the boy’s life was harder than those with sober parents.…

    • 668 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The anger that the father feels due to his unfortunate circumstances is prevalent throughout the poem and it leads to a strain on the relationship with the speaker as a child. The troubled economy resulted in the father losing his job; the speaker tells us that it was after this occurred that he…

    • 1242 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The man misses his father and regrets not understanding his father when he was alive. In an interview with Bill Moyers Lee agrees that he “Learned the most about his father after he had passed away” and in “Mnemonic” it is clearly shown that Lee mirrors the man in his own poem. This parallel is also seen in the poem’s structure. The ideas in the poem have little order and stanzas rarely build off of the lines before it and Lee’s “uncatalogued” memory is seen in the lack of order. Regret of the man’s relationship with his father is found in lines 25 and 26 when he says “All things reveal themselves to me / only gradually”. Tragically the truth of the father-son relationship is only recognized by the man after his father’s death, and he regrets the truth of not having the chance to fully live his life with his father. Finally, the man’s regret is cemented with the heart of the poem, “Memory is sweet. / Even when it’s painful, memory is sweet” (Ll 27-28). While the memory of his father is sweet, the man will always have the sour taste of not understanding his relationship with him when he…

    • 936 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The theme of “Mother to Son” is perseverance to live life without giving up. The mother compares her life to a ragged staircase which has “tacks” and “splinters” representing her life hardships and challenges such as financial strain and maintain a household. She is still determined to be “climbin’ on” the stairs despite the pain caused by the “tacks” and “splinters” along the way of every step. The mother encourages her son to never “set down on the steps” from the uphill challenges in life such as living through a struggle. She hopes to see her son face these obstacles rather than turning…

    • 1003 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays

Related Topics