The Downward Spiral into Madness

Prompt: What is the central tension (or the main idea) in Li-Young Li’s poem, “A Story”, and what are at least two literary devices or strategies that help the poet to develop this tension?

            In the poem “A Story”, by Li-Young Li, a father runs out of stories to tell his young son, and sees a vision of a future where his now older-son is leaving him because the father has no more stories to tell; as this is the central tension in the story, it is built up by the use of the conflict type “Man vs. Man”, and the use of the “flash-forward” technique.  In the beginning, all is calm, and Baba, the son, is asking his father for a new story to listen to, not one that has been repeated time and time again.  The father cannot think of one, and so begins the downward spiral of madness in his mind, where he sees a flash-forward where the boy gives up on him, and leaves him (because of the lack of a new story).  In this time away from ours, the boy is packing up and preparing to leave whilst his father is yelling at him, pleading him to stay and listen to just one more story (“Don’t go! Hear the alligator story! The angel story once more! You love the spider story. You laugh at the spider. Let me tell it!” (lines 12-14)).  Here in this time, he battles with the son, who is silent to his pleading and screaming (Man vs. Man), but accepts it and carries on with what he is doing.  Suddenly, time rights itself, and the youthful boy is still sitting there silently, still waiting on his father for a story.