Conversation with My Father Grace Paley
In her short story, A Conversation with my Father Grace Paley depicts a scene in which the narrator is visiting their dying father. The underlying tension between the two protagonists is shown using several narrative methods which emphasise the father’s need for his pending death to be accepted and the denial of his daughter/ son. ... There are no real clues as to their gender although the fact that they are a writer leads the reader to believe that it could be Paley herself and therefore female. ... The fact that the father is attached to oxygen tubes implies that it is likely to be a hospital and that the daughter is visiting him. ... It is unknown whether the daughter is a writer by profession, whether she has any family or if like in the story, it is just her and her father. ... It is obvious from the start that the daughter is full of resentment towards her father and his impending departure. ... She refers to him as “my father” in the narrative seeming cold and detached. ... The problem is not with her father as a person but with his body. ... This disassociation with her father is continued in the story that she writes for him. The story within the story is probably Paley’s most obvious narrative strategy. The story that she writes at her father’s request has certain parallels with the external story. Her internal story involves a mother and son, there is no mention of a father until this is questioned by the writer’s own father. ... It can be assumed, given the age of the father that she too is dead which may explain the daughter’s feelings regarding the loss of her father. ... She, like the father in the external story, takes an interest in what her son is doing and tries to help.