12 January 2009

"A Father's Story" - Andre Dubus

A story about a father's love for his daughter. It explores compassion, forgiveness, guilt, and a father "saving" his daughter.

The last lines are the father's "discussion" with God.

God says, I am a Father too.
But You never had a daughter and, if You had, You could not have borne her passion.
So, He says, you love her more than you love Me.
I love her more than I love truth.
Then you love in weakness, He says.
As You love me, I say....


I'm not sure what to make it of it all. The father-daughter relationship is important for sure. They say that once a man becomes a father, he changes radically. I see all these advertisements around that read, "Take time to be a dad today."


The influence on daughters and really everyone is great.
Reminds me of:

Boys soldiering, girls cleaning up the mess, women and their good, good hearts.

I noticed the words "men" or "man" don't appear in the song. I wonder if the "solution" is looking at men and masculinity. There seems to be no "owning up" to how to help in the "now" this girl who is an ever-changing maze (in the larger maze of misogyny?). Mayer asks for prevention in the future, but what will he do now that he's "done all [he] can"? Is he simply saying, "not my responsibility" and leaving off until the next generation?

Or, is it realistic? We all have limitations, right? It seems the other side of the continuum is Dubus' story of a father saving his daughter from the consequences of her own actions.

Overall(!), perhaps the larger question is if God had a "daughter" instead of a "son," would men-women/father-daughter relationships be so different?

1 comment:

s.t.liaw said...

Hey Christy Rose,

Thanks for your comments, and sorry for the late reply. We (the class) unfortunately didn't discuss the gender part of the story, but I still find it really intriguing. Maybe something will pop up in the future.

It was good to see you that night. Hope you're well. =)