Part I
While Child Protective Services might find the dance that unfolds in Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” to be a bit unsightly, it is clearly an event that the little boy enjoys, finding it a moment of bonding with his father. The fact that the boy’s “mother’s countenance/Could not unfrown itself”(Roethke 7-8) suggests that she disapproves of the father drinking. Indeed, the father has had more than a couple of shots, as the mere smell of it on his father’s breath turns the boy dizzy. This use of alcohol may well be just a form of solace after a long day of work, as the man has a “palm caked hard by dirt” (Roethke 14). However, there may also be a history of violence, as the hand that is “battered on one knuckle” (Roethke 10) may indicate. However, the rhetorical weight of the other verbs in the poem places the interpretive balance squarely on the side of bonding, rather than abuse. The boy refers to this as a “romp” (Roethke 5) and, even when it is time for the waltz to end, the boy is “[s]till clinging to [his father’s] shirt” (Roethke 16). Clearly, this is a time the boy treasures.
Part II
Placing the narrator at a lake is ideal, because many of the objects that the narrator sees are symbolic for the various phases of life. The water itself can be seen as a symbol for the beginning of life, and the necessary substance for the continuation of life. The girl has spent her entire summer, day by day, at the lake, watching people through the rectangle that her fingers make. It is intriguing that this is the last day she will spend at the lake, as she ends up leaving the lake, or the water that symbolizes the beginning of life, behind. The oak trees surrounding the lake also serve as a symbol – in this case, for the various phases of life. The fact that oak trees produce the acorns that continue the oak life cycle make them a symbol for the growing woman who narrates the story. The sandy woman, who (at least in the narrator’s imagination) appears to be about to dissolve, when she opens her swimsuit to let out some sand, represents for the narrator the fear of womanhood – the fear being whether or not giving in to the love that she has for the boy in class, as well as other adult transitions, will erode her own identity. With that crisis resolved, though, by the possibility of love, she is able to transition to adulthood.
Part III
Irene’s dream about the hydrogen bomb is just as incongruous with her own vision of reality as her husband Donald’s habit of baking a cake on a night of insomnia. Because Irene lives in a perfect, peaceful neighborhood, there is no way that a hydrogen bomb could worm its way into her actual reality. As a result, she does not talk about the dream to anyone. Because Donald is a hulking, husky man, there is no reason for him to want to bake cakes, which is why he hides them in the garage when they are done, and which is why he goes to a considerable effort to conceal the evidence of baking from his wife. “The Wrysons” is all about making appearances; the importance of these appearances is that they become the myth of what constitutes success. They also serve to oppress reality, because the simple fact that the Wrysons have so much wrong with them indicates, tacitly, that just about every family must have some of these quirks. Unfortunately, what are genuine, acceptable impulses (a fear of war, a desire to carry out roles beyond what is accepted for one’s gender) become, in such a society, cause for shame.
Works Cited
Cheever, John. “The Wrysons.” P. 318-322. E-book.
Roethke, Theodore. “My Papa’s Waltz.” P. 308. E-book.
Welty, Eudora. “A Memory.” P. 310-313. E-book.
