Tiny Smiling Daddy Essay Example
Takesha Flowers
Literary Criticism: Short Fiction
January 29, 2008
"Tiny, Smiling Daddy"
Reading Response #3
This story depicts a man who is struggling with his identity issues as well as those of his daughter whom happens to be lesbian. He hasn't come to terms with the fact that his daughter changed from this sweet little girl, into someone that he barely knows. All the while not understanding how he feels about his daughter, and how she truly feels about him. Stew is angry, but he is angry at himself because he doesn't know where he went wrong in the relationship with his daughter Kitty. His attitude toward his daughter is out of pure curiosity, after he received a phone call from his friend Norm informing him that his daughter had written an article about him in Self magazine that he had no idea was published by her. So begins the journey to figure out what the article said, and why Norm would have to be apologetic about the whole thing. Stew reminisced a lot about the old Kitty and how he loved that part of her life where she was so innocent, and didn't have any clue what the real world was all about, or acted like she knew everything, to Stew she was daddy's little girl. Stew was married, but his marriage didn't seem to fill the void that was missing in his life, his wife was never home, so Stew was usually home by himself, they had one car so he could come and go as he pleased. He really wanted to get to a store to buy that magazine to see what Kitty had said about him. He was so worried about it, that he imagined what the outcome would be. "Maybe she had written an article about how wonderful he was, and she was too shy to show him right away" (pg. 229) He knew better than to think that because he knew his daughter, she wasn't shy, "This was doubtful. Kitty was quiet, but she wasn't shy. She was untactful and she could be aggressive. Uncertainty only made her doubly aggressive" (Pg.229). His memories of the past was clouding his judgment of how
Literary Criticism: Short Fiction
January 29, 2008
"Tiny, Smiling Daddy"
Reading Response #3
This story depicts a man who is struggling with his identity issues as well as those of his daughter whom happens to be lesbian. He hasn't come to terms with the fact that his daughter changed from this sweet little girl, into someone that he barely knows. All the while not understanding how he feels about his daughter, and how she truly feels about him. Stew is angry, but he is angry at himself because he doesn't know where he went wrong in the relationship with his daughter Kitty. His attitude toward his daughter is out of pure curiosity, after he received a phone call from his friend Norm informing him that his daughter had written an article about him in Self magazine that he had no idea was published by her. So begins the journey to figure out what the article said, and why Norm would have to be apologetic about the whole thing. Stew reminisced a lot about the old Kitty and how he loved that part of her life where she was so innocent, and didn't have any clue what the real world was all about, or acted like she knew everything, to Stew she was daddy's little girl. Stew was married, but his marriage didn't seem to fill the void that was missing in his life, his wife was never home, so Stew was usually home by himself, they had one car so he could come and go as he pleased. He really wanted to get to a store to buy that magazine to see what Kitty had said about him. He was so worried about it, that he imagined what the outcome would be. "Maybe she had written an article about how wonderful he was, and she was too shy to show him right away" (pg. 229) He knew better than to think that because he knew his daughter, she wasn't shy, "This was doubtful. Kitty was quiet, but she wasn't shy. She was untactful and she could be aggressive. Uncertainty only made her doubly aggressive" (Pg.229). His memories of the past was clouding his judgment of how