Question

What would be a good thesis statement that can be used for "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke?I always seem to get stuck on thesis statements!

Accepted Answer

I usually encourage my students to pick two or three closely-related poetic elements on which to focus in a thesis, like:
Speaker, Audience, Tone
Metaphor, Imagery, and Theme
Prosody: Meter and Sound Effects
"My Papa's Waltz" presents a quandary among readers: younger readers fear the father, while older readers see him as relatively harmless.  Do you see him as an alcoholic child-abuser or a fun-loving, though rowdy, father?  So, take a position and, using approach #1 or #2 above, support it with textual support.
I find the poem interesting from a structural level: the first two lines of each stanza seem to be carefree, but the last two lines have slight turns to a darker side.  Why does Roethke do this?  Is there a musical or metrical connection to this approach?
Also, look what other editors have said about how to analyze the poem.  The TPCSTT method always leads to a good thesis as well.  Again, only focus on two or three of these:

Title: Ponder the title before reading the poem
Paraphrase: Translate the poem into your own words
Connotation: Contemplate the poem for meaning beyond the literal level
Attitude: Observe both the speaker’s and the poet’s attitude (tone).
Shifts: Note shifts in speakers and attitudes or form
Title: Examine the title again, this time on an interpretive level
Theme: Determine what the poet is saying

Answer

This is one of my favorite poems because it leaves room for two very different interpretations, and I think it would be interesting to choose one of those interpretations and then base your thesis statement off that. Let's consider the evidence first.
On one hand, there is evidence that the narrator is reflecting back on an abusive childhood at the hands of an alcoholic father. Those who choose this interpretation will point to the mother's displeasure with the rowdy scene, the smell of whisky that is strong enough to make the narrator "dizzy," and the battered knuckle, indicating that the father has come home from a fight. The tone is thus dark, furthered by word choice such as this:

You beat time on my head

He didn't tap out the rhythm of the music—he beat it. That's a pretty strong and violent sounding word choice.
But not everyone reads the poem this way, and some believe that this is a loving scene of a father and son at the end of a long work day. This poem was written in the late 1940s, and a father returning home from work with whiskey on his breath would not have necessarily been cause for alarm. Fathers during this time period often worked jobs requiring manual labor, so a battered knuckle and dirt-covered palms supports that historical context. This interpretation also points to the familiar and loving use of "papa" to reference his father and to the fact that after this boisterous scene is finished, the son clings to his father's shirt as he is taken to bed, another loving gesture in itself.
Therefore, your thesis could be structured like this:
Although some believe this is a poem with evidence of an abusive childhood, the historical context and characterization in the poem indicate a loving father-son relationship. 
(You could also flip this if you agree that this is a poem recalling the abuses of childhood.)
Your body paragraphs could then follow that thesis: one paragraph about the invalid (in this thesis) evidence of abuse, one examining the poem from its historical context, and a third examining the characterization of the father.
I hope this helps organize your thoughts. Good luck!

Answer

Here is one way to approach thesis statements that offers you an opportunity as a writer to present and organize a thoughtful argument supported by literary analysis.
First, think of a subject you would like to cover in your paper. This subject can be a literary term you would like to explore. One example of a literary term from "My Papa's Waltz" could be diction, but there are many other possibilities that would make an excellent thesis statement.
Next, think of a verb and a focus that allows you to discuss the subject in an argumentative way and invites you to locate evidence in the literary work that supports your argument. For example, you could argue that the diction, or word choice, in the poem suggests (the verb) that the writer's relationship with his father is emotionally complex (the focus).
Finally, put the three elements together into a sentence:

Theodore Roethke's diction suggests that his relationship with his father is emotionally complex and is full of danger and pain.

When writing your paper, make sure you locate examples of diction that prove your argument. Organize them into a clear outline, then write, revise, and proofread your paper. And there you have it! Good luck!

Answer

I encourage my students to use the following template when composing thesis statements regarding poetry: In [poem's title], [author's name] uses [literary device], [literary device], and [literary device] to convey the idea that [poem's main message or theme]. So, for this poem, you might use the following thesis: In "My Papa's Waltz," Theodore Roethke uses connotation, imagery, and simile to convey the idea that parent-child relationships are often fraught with both happy and painful feelings.
There are many words in the poem that have overly positive or negative connotations, which seem to make the relationship between father and child a mixed bag. Waltz, for example, is positive, but dizzy and death are negative. Other words that seem quite negative include unfrown, battered, scraped, beat, and hard. However, romped and waltzed continue to seem positive. The combination of words that seem painful with words that seem happy conveys the mixed emotions that characterize this relationship.
Further, the olfactory image of "whiskey on [the father's] breath" that makes his son "dizzy" is an unappealing one, but the visual and auditory image of "romp[ing] until the pans / Slid from the kitchen shelf" is comical, especially because it produces such a disapproving reaction from the speaker's mother. In the third stanza, the speaker is injured when his "right ear scraped a buckle"— a painful tactile image—but then he "cling[s] to [his father's] shirt" later on, another somewhat more positive visual image.
Finally, to say that the boy "hung on like death" to his father because their "waltzing was not easy" is a bit troubling. The simile, again, seems to present a mixture of feelings. Why hang on if it isn't fun? But why associate something fun with any aspect of death?
All of these poetic devices seem to convey the ambiguity of the feelings between the boy and his father.

My Papa's Waltz

What would be a good thesis statement that can be used for "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke? I always seem to get stuck on thesis statements!

Expert Answers

Unlock This Answer Now

Related Questions