I think it’s hard for most to imagine what it would be like to experience child abuse. Literature is a way for some people to gain insights to situations they may have never experienced. In Theodore Roethke’s My Papa’s Waltz, the author portrays child abuse with a simile that compares the boy’s situation to death, diction using words like, “such” “romped”, “battered”, “scraped” and “caked”, and a hyperbole in which time is beat on the boy’s head. 

In the first stanza of My Papa’s Waltz the author portrays child abuse with a simile comparing the boy’s situation to death and the use of the word “such”. The whiskey on the dad’s breath is enough to make the boy dizzy indicating the dad has drunken a lot and is intoxicated. It is a common habit for many hardworking or stressed people to become violent when drinking alcohol. The boy then says he “hung on like death” which illustrates he is very seriously hanging on to his father (Roethke). This would indicate that although the father is abusive the child is too young to understand that what is happening is wrong. The next line the boy states such waltzing was not easy, the use of the word “such” indicates this “waltz” the boy and his papa are engaged in is not the popular dance “the waltz”, but that the father is drunk and stumbling around while the boy is holding on to him (Roethke). The author also illustrates evidence of child abuse in the second stanza.

Theodore Roethke portrays more evidence of child abuse in his poem My Papa’s Waltz in the second stanza. The boy states that he and his papa “romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf” (Roethke). The use of the word “slid” rather than “flew” or “tumbled” indicates some sort of submission to falling to the floor; this submissive diction is symbolic of the boy’s submission to the abuse from his papa. The boy is submissive to the abuse because he is too small to fight back, and he “hangs on like death” to his papa despite being beat by him because of his unconditional love to him (Roethke). Also, the use of the word romp as compared to “danced” or even “waltz” indicates that the boy and his papa were in some kind of struggle, causing the pans to fall off the kitchen shelf. The mother of the boy witnesses the incident and the author states that the boy’s “mother’s countenance could not unfrown itself” meaning she was frowning, which also indicates the father was abusing the boy (Roethke). If the father and son were lovingly waltzing in the kitchen I don’t think that the mother would be frowning. The third stanza has textual evidence that suggest the father is abusing the boy.

There is more evidence of child abuse in My Papa’s Waltz in the third stanza of the poem. The boy says his father’s hand had a “battered” knuckle on his hand which held the boy’s wrist (Roethke). Instead of holding the boy’s hand which would indicate a mutual agreement to hold each other, the father is grabbing his wrist which indicates the father is forcefully grabbing him rather than holding his hand lovingly. Also the “battered” hand symbolizes that the father is tough or hardworking. The father could use his alcohol addiction and stress from his job as an excuse in his head to abuse his child. Also, perhaps the battered knuckle is a sign that the father has beat his son or maybe even someone else on a separate occasion causing his knuckle to become injured. The author then writes that with ever step the father missed the boy’s ear “scrapes” a buckle (Roethke). The use of the word “scrapes” is important because this diction indicates harm, rather than having the buckle “brush” or “touch” the boy’s ear which would indicate accidental contact between the buckle and the boy’s ear. Also the buckle scraping the boy’s ear illustrates the father is using a belt to beat the boy. The fourth and final stanza also provides evidence that the father has been abusing his son.

The author illustrates more evidence of child abuse in the final stanza with a hyperbole and more diction with the word “caked”. The author uses a hyperbole in the fourth stanza when the boy states “You beat time on my head” (Roethke). The father is not literally “beating time” on the boys head, what the author means by this statement is that this is not the first time the father has beat his son, and that perhaps he beats him regularly. This could also explain the mother’s reaction to her son being beat, rather than try to stop the boy’s father from beating him all she does it frown. If the abuse is a normal event in this house, like the author suggests, perhaps the mother knows she can’t stop it, and instead holds a countenance that “cannot unfrown itself” (Roethke). The scraped knuckle in the third stanza could be from another occasion when the father was beating his son. More evidence is present to suggest that the father is hardworking, he beats the boy “with a palm caked hard by dirt” (Roethke). The use of the word “caked” indicates a hand that is completely covered with dirt (Roethke). This would add to the evidence in the third stanza suggesting the father is hard working in a lower income job such as coal mining, or construction where it would be possible for his hand to become “caked” in dirt. It can also be said that a hardworking man in a lower income job would become easily stressed and get violent when highly intoxicated. The boy then states that as the father goes to bed he is still clinging to his shirt (Roethke). The boy clinging to his father’s shirt is more evidence of the boy’s unconditional love to his father, despite being beaten by him the boy is young and does not understand his father’s actions towards him.

In Theodore Roethke’s My Papa’s Waltz, the author portrays child abuse with a simile that compares the boy’s situation to death, diction using words like, “romped”, “battered”, “scraped” and “caked”, and a hyperbole in which time is beat on the boy’s head. Although many of us had happy childhoods with loving parents, Theodore Roethke allows the reader to take a look into less fortunate lifestyles and gain insight to situations previously unknown.
