A Conversation with My Father

A Conversation with My Father ' by Grace Paley

Grace Paley combined several elements and devices in her short story A Conversation with My Father . The most striking themes in this short story are abandonment and family relationships . In this new story , the daughter is describing facts , whereas the father wants a more complete , full of details . Following this , we see that the daughter prefers to be optimistic , while the father prefers reality

This is illustrated by the following quotes : No , Pa , it could really happen that way , it 's a funny world

nowadays , and to this , the father replies No . Truth first . She will slide back ' Her story describes the life of a mother and her son , and how she becomes a junkie to remain close to her son , who has become a junkie . In the end , the son quits the drugs world , but the mother cannot . Her son leaves her , introducing the element of abandonment in the story . This theme is pursued further , but in between lines . For example , the son left his mother at a critical time , when she needed him most , whereas the narrator stayed with her dad , even in his dying days . The father does not believe that the woman in his daughter 's story is strong enough and that even though she manages to quit doing drugs , she will fall back . I would tend to agree with him , because a lot of substance abusers , who quit , eventually , fall back . Her story is too optimistic , with a sense of denial for the tragedy . As the story ends , the father says Tragedy ! You too . When will you look it in the face ' Again , here we wonder whether the tragedy refers to the mother /son situation , or the fact that he will be dying soon . Earlier on , the father had said what a tragedy . The end of a person ' And again , here the daughter refuses to accept that this is the end .whether it is the end of the mother or her father . This all relates to hope . When she started her story , she was determined to have hope in her story , to demonstrate that everyone .deserves the open destiny of life ' I find it ironical , as she tries her best to present the story with an open end , with plenty of hope . However , when she read the story , her father says that it does not communicate hope . It 's the end . On a lighter tone , there is another obvious pair of ironical sentence . The father says Doesn 't anyone have the time to run down to City Hall before they jump into bed ' and to this his daughter replies In real life , yes . But in my stories , no ' I find this ironical , as nowadays the opposite is true . Today , in real life , people jump to bed and then get married , or never get married . This is a contrast between then and now , and how the people , as well as literature , have changed

This short story depicts...