Raymond Carver, “My Father’s Life”
1The writer mentions his father’s name and his own name. They share the same name, “Raymond” The name is employed like a thread that weaves the relationship between a father and a son. They have inseparable connection. At the funeral of his father, the name revives into special meaning. “What I do remember is that I heard our name used a lot that afternoon, my dad’s name and mine. But I knew they were talking about my dad. Raymond, these people kept saying in their beautiful voices out of my childhood. Raymond.” (75)
2. His father was not devoted to his wife and his family even though he was a hard worker. Rather, he liked other ladies and friends. Also, he used to move from here to there for new jobs not considering his family. However, his son loved him and was there for him when he was sick and helped him with his work in the mill. That seems that a father is a teenager who is making trouble constantly and a son is a father who is taking care of his son.
3. When the writer told his father that he wanted to be a writer, his father did not oppose to it, but he did not seem to like it. The writer felt alienated and he put off of him. It might be an excuse that he was busy with going to school, so he could not meet his father and could not be with him at the last moment. It was because he did not meet his father.
4 The poem that the writer wrote for his father is very provocative. He says “I study my father’s embarrassed young man’s face. Sheepish grin, he holds in one hand a string of spiny yellow perch, in the other a bottle of Carlsberg beer.” (Carver,75) He clearly knew t his father’s vulnerability but did not judge it. Rather, he says, “He would like to pose brave and hearty for his posterity wear his old hat cocked over his ear. All his life my father wanted to be bold.”(75) He wants to say something that was unsaid while his father was alive. “Father, I love you, yet how can I say thank you,” (75)