A Father's love

In the poem “A Story”(by Li-Young Li) the author uses literary techniques such as flash forward and connotation to build a central tension about a father afraid his son will forget about his dad when his son is an adult . “Already the man lives fear ahead, he sees the day his boy will go. Don’t go!”(Li) The author uses flash forward to develop the father’s fear of his son growing older and leaving. By looking into the future, the father is alarmed at what will one day happen and realizes that the stories won’t matter one day. “Not the same story, Baba. A new one….In a room full of books in a world of stories”(Li) Stories  and reading books are associated little children and childhood. The child in the poem is only five and does enjoy stories. The young connotation associated with children brings the father back to present day realizing his son is only five now but that cannot be forever. The father will remember his boy from all the stories giving a positive meaning to this stage of the boy’s life. The central tension of a boy growing up too fast for his father helps the author establish connotation and flash forward to build the tension.

~Natalie Johnson