Introduction
The two literatures in study are “Fiesta 1980” by Junot Diaz and “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath. The two showcase the struggles and complexities of the relationship between children and their fathers. The similarity outlined in both works is that in both, the main characters have a complex relationship with their fathers. They both struggle to understand their fathers. The difference, however, is curved in the fact that the poem by Sylvia is based upon real hatred of one’s parent. The story by Junor,on the other hand, is not based on hatred, but a struggle by the writer to understand and fit in the father’s world. The two stories will be analyzed based on the theme of parent-child relationships and the coming of age.
Summary and analysis
The poem,“Daddy” by Sylvia Plath begins with the poets attack on her father, where she exclaims to having killed him. She calls him “black soe” to showcase her pain at her father, who is a representation of the male gender in the poem. She explains having grown up as a poor person even though she was white and the terror of being exposed to German wars that led to her desire to learn polish. She describes how she could not talk to her father because she was afraid. She thought that every German man was her father, and she detested Germans and their language (Bloom, Harold, 23). When she moved past her fear, she mingled with Jews and identified herself as being more of a Jew. At the time, Jews were greatly despised by the Germans. She later describes the uptight nature of her father that made her be scared of him. In addition, the writer compares her father to all the cruelness in this world, while referring to him as a devil and a black man. Despite her father’s shocking death when the narrator was ten, she wished him back so she could kill him. She still had her father’s image of brutality and carried it to her marriage. She confesses to having killed a man who acted like her father that she was married to for seven years. In addition, the poem says that the village danced to the death of her father. She attains freedom when her marriage is over and asks her father to rest his black heart.
The narration, “Fiesta 1980” by Junot Diaz centers on an immigrant family that relocates to the USA and struggles in the life of New York City. The setting of the story begins when they decide to celebrate the arrival of their Tia Yima, the narrator’s aunt, into the City (Nguyen and Porter Shreve, 50). They are excited about her relocation and organize a fiesta to welcome her. The narrator’s father was seeing another woman even though his wife tried to impress him. On that day, nobody was enthusiastic about the party because their mood had been spoilt by their father’s bad attitude. Because the narrator was not supposed to eat before a trip, his father spanked him that day. He always vomited in the green van that the father tried to keep clean. Because of the constant beatings, the narrator had composed a paper in school called “my father the torturer.” The story reverberates around his father’s cheating and arguments with his wife, and his longing for some affection.
In the first poem, the theme of the poem is centered on the relationship between a daughter and her father. Because her father was in the German army, she had to witness the killing and torture he imposed on people (Agarwal, Suman, 56). She had no relationship with him and greatly despised him. The narrator’s relationship with her father was so strained that she disassociated herself from everything that revolved around him. From the poem, we learn that she thinks of her father as having been a cruel man with whom she had a substantially dullrelationship. He died when she was still young, and she carried that burden throughout adulthood. Her coming of age is symbolized through her marriage. When she became of age, she got rid of all the emotional tormenting of her father and found her way. When the poem ends, she tells her father that she has killed a man who was sucking blood from her like he did. The killing symbolizes the end of her acceptance of exploitation from men. That is when she finally let her father go.
In the second reading, the narrator has a complicated relationship with his father. His father is showcased as a tough man, who cared about his van more than he did his son (Gioia, Dana and Gwynn, 45). He refused to let his son eat at a party because he would vomit in his car. Because of that kind of tyranny, the narrator had a strained relationship with him. He barely talked to his father, who was not the type that fondled and openly showed affection. Even so, the narrator does not hate or despise his father like is the case in the poem. He acknowledges the role the father plays in the family. The coming of age is symbolized through his brother’s engagement in sexual encounters with girls in their neighborhood.
The second piece of literature is more realistic as it showcases the struggles in a number of homes. There are a lot of strict fathers in the homes of many people. In addition, the things the family goes through with their father are usual. Even if there is no positive representation, there are households that go through what is depicted in the story. The work is, therefore, more authentic.
Conclusion
The pieces of literature represent the psychological and emotional issues that children go through in households. Some are extreme in nature, and some are usual. The stories also showcase the wounds that can be inflicted by bad parenting and strain in parental relationships.
Works cited
Agarwal, Suman. Sylvia Plath. New Delhi: Northern Book Centre, 2003. Print.
Bloom, Harold. Sylvia Plath. New York: Bloom's Literary Criticism, 2007. Internet resource
Gioia, Dana, and R S. Gwynn. Art of the Short Story. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006. Print.
Nguyen, B M, and Porter Shreve. The Contemporary American Short Story. New York [u.a.: Pearson Longman, 2004. Print.
