Crystal Diaz ENC1102

Crystal Diaz ENC1102 16 October 2012 Tue 9:50am “Any man can be a father, but it takes a special person to be a dad. ” There are some people who do not have the opportunity to have a father in their life. Someone they can call dad. Like the men in the work’s “Daddy” Sylvia Plath and “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke. A similarity of the works is that that the fathers were admired by their children. In contrast, In “Daddy” the fathers was abusive and in “My Papa’s Waltz” the father wasn’t abusive towards the son. The poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke the speaker is rejoicing on a childhood experience with his father.
The father and son are actually waltzing around the house; having fun with one another and enjoying each other’s company. The poem shows a positive relationship with the father and son. In “Daddy” By Sylvia Plath the young girl is expressing her love hate relationship with her deceased father. The father is abusive towards the narrator in the poem never really paid any attention to her. The young girl shows hate towards her father because she never has the chance to get to know her father because he died when she was seven years old.
The poem “My Papa’s Waltz by Theodore Roethke has similarities with “Daddy” because both the children in the poem show the admiration for their fathers. For example; In line 15, “still clinging to your shirt. ” (Roethke, Line 15), In My Papa’s Waltz the boy doesn’t want to stop playing with his father. He enjoys the father’s company and playfulness. In Daddy the young girl admires her dad because she still talks about him, “I made a model of you. ”(Plath, line 63). She married a man just like he father. She was looking for a father figure and trying to look up to that man.

In Contrast, the difference between “My Papa’s Waltz” and “Daddy” is the positive and negative memory of the fathers. The imagery and language, the symbolism, and tone in the poem gave the impression of love between a father and son. “We romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf. ” The poem shows the father and son’s playful act while dancing. The difference in “Daddy” is the girl shows hate towards her father and it’s not a very pleasant memory of him. She even states that she had to kill him but in a figurative way.
She describes that her father wasn’t always around and that she might as while have been a Jew. “I began to talk like a Jew. I think I may well be a Jew. ”(Plath, lines 33-34). In conclusion, anyone can have a father but not many can say they have a good father. Both poems had their similarities such as they loved their fathers. The differences between the poems were the positive or negative memory they had of their fathers. The relationship that the boy had in “My Papa’s Waltz” was a fun and loving memory. Unfortunately, the girl in “Daddy” did not have such lucky and has emotional issues towards her father.