




Being a father is one of the hardest jobs out there and if you are not careful then something like alcoholism can start to affect your life. In My Papa’s Waltz by Theodore Roethke, the father is struggling with alcohol and it seems to be effecting how the rest of the family lives. The poem seems to be coming from the perspective of the boy, who is trying to dance with his father. This boy talks about how hard it is to “waltz” with his father, but waltz in this poem could have a much larger meaning. If the boy has a rough relationship with his father, then the waltz could be a reference to the difficulties he goes through when trying to be close with his father. Every boy looks up to their father in their own way, but the father is usually their son’s hero. This boy wants to be exactly like his father, but seeing his father like this is not easy. But the father is too busy drinking and taking it out on the rest of the family. The notion of the son’s complicated relationship with his troubled father is the main theme of this poem and the writer explains the relationship through examples. 

The first stanza of My Papa’s Waltz talks about how the little boy is trying to have a fun time with his father by dancing with him, but something is making the night an unpleasant memory. Not only is this father very drunk from the whiskey he drank, but the little boy also happened to be getting dizzy from the smell of his father’s breath. Line three talks about how this father was holding on for his life, but this could indicate the father is a terrible alcoholic and drank too much before the dance. The use of the word “death” stands out in this line because it can add another element to the idea of how severe the father’s case of alcoholism is and that every time the father drinks, the boy fears for the father’s life and possibly his own. The last line of the stanza brings together the stanza as it relates to the main message of the passage. The last line connects the fear in the boy with the concept that the dance is hard. The boy is going to have to struggle to waltz while the father is drunk, but the boy loves his father and would do anything to show that love even if it meant having to dance with his drunk father. This is a reference to the idea that father-son relationships are not always painless, especially when the father is a drunk, but that there is a balance of love and hate with your father. This touches on the main theme which is that the waltz is the son’s life, it can be great or very poor. In this case, the father is very drunk so the son’s life is not going well.

A similar reference to the main theme occurs in the first couple of lines in the second stanza. The stanza starts off with a hint at how father-son relationships can be hard. The dance is causing the two to bump into pans, which means the two are not dancing smoothly and cohesively. The pans symbolize obstacles that occur in every relationship no matter how hard the two sides try to be civil. The kitchen is also important because a lot of family activities occur there, so the kitchen is a place where people spend a lot of time. The mother comes into the story in line 7, when she enters the kitchen with a frown on her face. Her facial expression is such a dark frown that it did not change when she walked in the room, so something must be wrong with her relationship with her husband or she heavily disapproves with the actions going on. If she was happy to see her husband and their son dancing in the kitchen, she would have put on a smile for them. The mother must be afraid of the husband and showing her fear could lead to the boy fearing for himself. The mother could have stopped the dance if she was against it, but the poem does not talk about her bringing the dance to a stop. So the mother’s actions mean that she does not have the courage to speak against her husband. Which would also go along with how poorly the life of the father is going. When someone is that drunk and people fear what you might do to them, that person should realize that they are in bad shape and need help. This makes it hard for the boy to build a strong relationship with his father.

Roethke does a great job using metaphors to describe the relationship between the son and the sick father. There are more than the ones described, but these are the metaphors that stick out. Each stanza has a connection to the main theme, father-son relationships are not easy and many challenges and obstacles get in the way to test the strength of the relationship. In this case the father has an addiction to alcohol and it prevents the son from getting to his know his father in a way he wants too. It is sad to see a disease like alcoholism effect the way a son interacts with his father, but it happens so much that this poem is very relatable. The waltz is a physical dance that the boy is doing with his father, but it also means a lot more. The waltz is a physical representation of the father-son relationship. It is not about the physical abuse that happens in most father-son relationships, it is about the father teaching the son how to be a man and how to live correctly. If the father is too sick to do that, then the boy’s whole life changes and he may never fully understand his masculinity. A lot of the lines hint at little things that make this relationship very interesting. Little words give hints at how this relationship could be physical and the boy could be harmed by his father in many ways.



