Family Unit Explored in \"Papa\'s Waltz\" Family

Family Unit Explored in "Papa's Waltz"

Family life is a complicated thing and while Hollywood might want us to think the family is a happy, cohesive unit, life proves it wrong. Reflecting life and its wide array of unexpected and unforeseen incidents, family life is a combination of the best and worst that life offers. Family life, at best, is bittersweet and "My Papa's Waltz," by Theodore Roethke demonstrates this point perfectly. Told from a child's point-of-view, the poem touches on how fear and love can exist at the same time.

The various elements of the family unit emerge in this poem. The tone of the poem reveals the speaker's mixed emotions toward his father. Through sensory descriptions, he allows readers to experience those emotions. For example, he smells whiskey on his father's breath, while still hanging onto him "like death" (Roethke 3). This is frightening when considered from a child's perspective but the speaker never mentions fear. He recounts the incident as a "romp" (5). This word choice allows readers to see the speaker using images from childhood to enhance the mood of the poem. Romp is something we think of when we think of children playing carefree. While the speaker and his father are not "playing" in the typical sense, we get the notion that this kind of playing is what the speaker grows accustomed to over the years. The waltz is not rough but the speaker notices his father's "battered knuckle" (10) and "palm caked hard by dirt" (14). These images symbolize the father's hard life and they help ground readers with what is actually going on in the poem. This is not playtime for the speaker and he might even have moments of terror as his father swings him around the room. However, above all else, the speaker knows he is with his father and he rests in this thought. These opposing images create a somber mood because childhood is neither happy nor sad.

This point-of-view supports the idea that family life, even at its best, is bittersweet. The speaker's drunken father dragging him around the kitchen is not what we might call a treasured or favorite memory but it is a memory nevertheless. The two dance while "such waltzing was not easy" (Roethke 4). The speaker is using the negative impact of the drunken father with the positive image of dancing to balance out life. Readers do not know exactly how the speaker feels toward his father. As far as feelings of love or hate, we only find ambiguity. Such is life when we are connected to people and experience the pain of life with them. The love and the fear the speaker feels is not isolated; children often fear their parents in many ways. With this perspective, the poet captures the essence of life.