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A Story By Li Young Lee

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A Story By Li Young Lee
Allondra Delagarza February 12, 2015 P: 5th “A Story” By Li-Young Lee “A Story” by Young Lee writes about a young boy who wants his father to tell him a story but he doesn’t want to hear the same story over and over again. He wants to her a new story. The poem is written about a five year old boy and talking to his “baba.” Ba is the Chinese word for “dad” and “baba” translates to daddy. The poem can be told through the boy’s perspective or the father’s perspective. In order to fully understand the poem you have to understand the background of Young Lee’s life and the life of his fathers. One has to really understand when Lee’s family immigrated to the U.S. and they were living in a cramped and poor environment. In order to pass the time they read a lot of books constantly, that’s where story telling between his father and him stemmed. Lee always wanted to read because it was something he could bond with his father with. Until his father was imprisoned and all they could do was tell stories. The poem is about a young child growing up and the father is sacred of thinking about his child growing up leaving home. So he thinks about a story to tell him. “The man rubs his chin, scratches his ear,” shows how is thinking very deeply in order to come up with a new story for his son. The fact that the father can’t come up with a story to tell his son is very crucial to the story or poem. The way the poem is structured is taking the reader from the present then transported to the future. To distinguish the present where “His son waits in his lap,” to the future by “”Already the ma lives far ahead, he sees the day the boy will go.” Another literary device that Lee uses is of metaphor as he screams in his thoughts “Are you a god that I sit mute before you?” The complex relationship is introduced to the reader. The father wants to tell his son a story while he “still can” but it is very obvious to him that his son will soon be leaving home to become his own person and the father will be very sad. Throughout the poem Lee uses very low diction.

Works Cited:
"Li-Young Lee." Wikipedia.com. N.P., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2015.

Cited: "Li-Young Lee." Wikipedia.com. N.P., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2015.

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