Analyzing Kate Chopin's 'Can We Love Our Battering Father'
Analyzing the Theme of Kate Chopin’s “The Storm” and How it is Established Through the Setting and Mood
In analyzing the short story, “Can We Love Our Battering Fathers?” by Helen H. Gordon, one will smell the sickening odour of “booze and vomit” (p.7) and feel as terrorized as Gordon’s family felt around Christmas time when her father drank since booze was more available during this festive season. Gordon creates this image of desperation with nowhere to turn for her and the family members and does a fabulous job of getting the reader to be as close as possible to her experiences using reflective writing. An important literary device is the literary illusion to King Lear by William Shakespear in the first paragraph; this proves to …show more content…
be of utmost importance in understanding the bond between Gordon and her father.
In the first paragraph of the paper, Gordon is standing by a rack of cards trying to pick a card for father’s day.
She then takes the reader back to the story of her and her family growing up and reflects on her personal experiences.
Next we notice the literary illusion to King Lear where Gordon compares herself to the daughter of the king, Cordelia as she is saying to the king “I love you according to my bond”, which is more specifically a blood bond. The significance of this is that Gordon, from the beginning lets the reader know that she only loves her father as it is her duty.
She goes on to state that she has lived through years of fear and still carries emotional scars from hearing “thumps against the floor or screams in the night” (Gordon p.2). The choice of diction is significant in this paper; it adds dramatically to the feeling of hopelessness and anxiety Gordon felt during her childhood.
One can also notice the direct speech used when her father accidentally broke a vase that was of importance to the mother. “What the hell d’ja put that thing there for?” (Gordon p.3) This gives the reader a sense of how the father talked; it creates an image of a drunken father and blends in with the context of the
paper.
We can refer to the destruction of the vase as foreshadowing of what happens to Gordon’s mother at the end of the story as this was a beloved item that belonged to her. Gordon uses foreshadowing to create suspense and give the reader the hint of what would happen to her mother at the end of the story. It’s also a great technique to keep the reader guessing and interested in the story line.
Gordon’s choice of diction, reflective writing style, and her use of mentioned literary devices make this paper astonishingly suspenseful and emotional. She combines great techniques to get her feelings across to the point where the reader almost feels as if he’s gone through the trauma of living in a family with an abusive father.
Works Cited
Gordon, Helen H. Can We Love Our Battering Fathers?. Print.
Salgādo, Gāmini, and William Shakespeare. King Lear. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1984. Print.
In analyzing the short story, “Can We Love Our Battering Fathers?” by Helen H. Gordon, one will smell the sickening odour of “booze and vomit” (p.7) and feel as terrorized as Gordon’s family felt around Christmas time when her father drank since booze was more available during this festive season. Gordon creates this image of desperation with nowhere to turn for her and the family members and does a fabulous job of getting the reader to be as close as possible to her experiences using reflective writing. An important literary device is the literary illusion to King Lear by William Shakespear in the first paragraph; this proves to …show more content…
be of utmost importance in understanding the bond between Gordon and her father.
In the first paragraph of the paper, Gordon is standing by a rack of cards trying to pick a card for father’s day.
She then takes the reader back to the story of her and her family growing up and reflects on her personal experiences.
Next we notice the literary illusion to King Lear where Gordon compares herself to the daughter of the king, Cordelia as she is saying to the king “I love you according to my bond”, which is more specifically a blood bond. The significance of this is that Gordon, from the beginning lets the reader know that she only loves her father as it is her duty.
She goes on to state that she has lived through years of fear and still carries emotional scars from hearing “thumps against the floor or screams in the night” (Gordon p.2). The choice of diction is significant in this paper; it adds dramatically to the feeling of hopelessness and anxiety Gordon felt during her childhood.
One can also notice the direct speech used when her father accidentally broke a vase that was of importance to the mother. “What the hell d’ja put that thing there for?” (Gordon p.3) This gives the reader a sense of how the father talked; it creates an image of a drunken father and blends in with the context of the
paper.
We can refer to the destruction of the vase as foreshadowing of what happens to Gordon’s mother at the end of the story as this was a beloved item that belonged to her. Gordon uses foreshadowing to create suspense and give the reader the hint of what would happen to her mother at the end of the story. It’s also a great technique to keep the reader guessing and interested in the story line.
Gordon’s choice of diction, reflective writing style, and her use of mentioned literary devices make this paper astonishingly suspenseful and emotional. She combines great techniques to get her feelings across to the point where the reader almost feels as if he’s gone through the trauma of living in a family with an abusive father.
Works Cited
Gordon, Helen H. Can We Love Our Battering Fathers?. Print.
Salgādo, Gāmini, and William Shakespeare. King Lear. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1984. Print.