Introduction
Finding a father’s love is relevant for many families and is reflected in literary works. Paternal upbringing in attention plays a significant role in shaping the boy as a future man. Therefore, support for learning and understanding are essential components of growing up that help the child feel that he is doing something right or vice versa. In “I Wanted to Share My Father’s World,” former President Jimmy Carter wrote about his relationship with his father and the life lessons he taught him. In his poem, to better reveal specific points, the author uses various literary techniques that help to reveal the whole range of Carter’s emotions in his relationship with his father.
Analysis of Structure and Literary Devices
Carter’s poem is structured as a series of stories about the essential lessons his father taught him, which later affected his life. Throughout the poem, there is an image that is key to perception, and this is the land, “The land he loved was a place of paradox and beauty, / of life and death, of triumph and failure” (Carter lines 3-4). In this case, Carter uses the juxtaposition device to show how controversial this meaning is for his father and how many different emotions he experienced owning a farm. Through contrasting concepts of life and death, triumph and defeat, Carter emphasizes the richness and depth of the earth and its role in shaping his father’s worldview. This is an essential comparison with their relationship, as it is also filled with contrasting details of joyous moments, negative feelings, and regrets.
Analysis of Poem Message
Carter shows the episode with his father’s devotion to agriculture at the beginning to compare this occupation with his son’s upbringing, which received little attention. The father’s priorities focused mainly on farming, which created difficulties in raising the boy. At the same time, Carter did not want to farm all his life, which he displays in the following line: “I wanted more from life than just the soil, / more than the endless cycle of planting and harvest” (Carter lines 19-20). This demonstrates the generational contradiction and conflict that arose from disagreements with his father about Carter’s future activities. This passage reflects the confrontation and his attempt to escape from the routine provincial life that his father loves.
Despite the lack of fatherly attention to what Carter would like to do, he also reveals some aspects of what his father taught him and how he tried to understand his father. At the same time, the author clarifies that their relationship was much more complex than just a conflict of interest. Father’s love was always shown only for the land and farming; therefore, Carter often felt that his father did not need him. Instead, their unifying factor was land: “He never said he loved me, and I guess he never did. / But I knew he loved the land, and that was love enough” (Carter lines 11-12).
Thus, the author admits that the form of his love for the land may be partly a sign that, deep down, he also feels the same feelings for his son. Therefore, Carter writes that he began to appreciate and understand this love as if it were completely related to him. Thus, despite all the difficulties, the author admits there was still a connection between them.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is essential to say that Jimmy Carter’s poem about his relationship with his father shows the complexity of their relationship. These are both manifestations of love and misunderstanding, which later become unimportant. Thus, Carter realized as he grew up that a father’s love for his son could take many forms. If he did not show it literally, then this did not mean he did not love the boy. Passing on his experience and the desire to make his son’s life as good as possible by telling and teaching various things simultaneously was the relationship the father knew how to show, which Carter could not understand then.
Work Cited
Carter, Jimmy. Always a Reckoning, and Other Poems. New York, Times Books, 1995.