My Papas Waltz Analysis

In the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” Theodore Roethke uses a type of dance to symbolize the narrator’s relationship with his violently alcoholic father, the antagonist. The evidence in the poem suggests the boy, the protagonist, has come to terms with the domestic violence and accepts it. The narrator believes the beatings are inevitable and relates them to every human’s inevitable fate, through death. The narrator doesn’t blame his father and in fact blames himself for the beatings. Roethke argues that the relationship between a father and son proves to be more powerful than the sons self respect. The argument portrayed becomes clearer when broken down into 4 stanzas. The first stanza “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy; But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy.” gives important clues that set the tone for this poem. In the first line, Roethke uses simple, straight forward language to portray the fact that the father has come home intoxicated. The second line “Could make a small boy dizzy;” might represent feelings of nausea and nervousness caused by his fathers level of intoxication. When the narrator’s father comes home the boy knows that his father usually becomes violent when intoxicated and worries about being beaten. Roethke uses he line “But I hung on like death” to portray a sense of acceptance from the boy. The boy forgives his father for everything, as if every father in the world gets drunk and beats their children every night. Roethke uses the second stanza, “We romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf; My mothers countenance could not unfrown.” to portray domestic violence and a sense of disappointment from the mother. The pans sliding from the kitchen shelf represent physical violence and the mothers countenance represents emotional distress. The mother doesn’t agree with what the fathers doing but she can do nothing about it. The look on the mothers face shows how sad she feels for what happens to her son. But