Lucille Clifton’s poem,” forgiving my father,” describes her family as being nothing but broke. Broke because of their father—not just money broke, but also, emotionally unstable. Her father favored his son, rather than his daughter and wife. In class, we discussed how this poem uses an extended metaphor. In several different ways, Clifton uses words that lead back to money and favoritism.
In the beginning of the poem, she starts off with “it is Friday, we have come to the paying of bills.” Friday is usually the day that people get paid on and it’s a happy day; however, in this poem, Clifton dreads payday-- “all week you have stood in my dreams like a ghost, asking for more time.” For her and her family, paying bills is such a stressful task, because of her father. Her father had already spent all the money they needed to use on their bills, not on her or her mother, but on her brother. In this poem, the son’s in the family got all the father’s attention, and of course, all of the money.
How would you feel if one of your parents gave his/her undivided attention and love to just one of your siblings, and none to you? Luckily, I have amazing parents, but I can only imagine how crummy that would feel. This poem, to me, not only expresses how stressed out the narrator is about money, but how sad she feels about her father not showing any affection for her (or her mother). The lines that express how the narrator feels about this situation are the following—“old liar. I wish you were rich so I could take it all but you were the son of a needy father, the father of a needy son, you gave her all you had which as nothing.” It seems that the narrator’s life wasn’t a pleasant one at all. It’s one thing to have a problem with money, but it’s another thing to have to live through life being her father’s second choice.
4 comments:
I really like how you focused on how it would feel to be the girl who gets nothing because the son and father get everything. Like you, I've never experienced that, but I imagine it's terrible. The speaker really seems to carry this bitterness with her all throughout her life. I like that you acknowledge that although the poem is full of money references, she had to forgive her father for more than just not having money. It was about his blatantly favoritism towards her brother. Those feelings of him having nothing emotional left to give her was worse than no money. Great insights!
In many cases the boys were the favorite in a family many years ago. In my family, my grand parents are in their late 80's and they favor the boys over the girls. They love and cared for all of their children, but the boys were favored. I was an only child, with both of my parents so I can not relate personally with this poem either. I think that living without a lot of money i could deal with but I do not think that I could deal with being left out by the only parent I had left.
I enjoy reading your interpretations on various poems we have to read for the class mainly because we usually have the same views. The poem is based on a family who is struggling financially and the daughter is so focused on how it is her father's fault. She does this out of respect for her dead mother. She feels as though she needs to stand up for not only herself, but her mother and brother as well. I have read several views on this poem and I feel like we were the only ones who believed money was not exactly the issue that fueled the daughter. She just wanted the undivided attention and love just as any other child would want from their parents. Great use of quotes from the poem. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Your thoughts are very good! The girl is knows that she must be the responsible one in the family because her father isnt. She makes up for what he lacks to try to get the right things done. Well done!
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