Louise Gluck's, "Terminal Resemblance

Essay by Th3xTrUtHCollege, UndergraduateB, October 2008

download word file, 2 pages 0.0

Downloaded 10 times

Literature in SocietySeptember 23, 2008True FeelingsLouise Gluck’s, “Terminal Resemblance” is about the relationship of a father and daughter. The daughter believes that their relationship is not the best it could be and they are not as close as she would like it to be. The poem is written in narrative form, by the daughter in the story. The poem illustrates that although one might not express his or her emotions, the individual still loves and cares for the person who is most important to him or her.

Throughout the poem, the girl seems to have a particular style about the way she describes her father and what he means to her. This style sets the poem’s pace throughout the story. She seems to be the type of girl who is rebellious or does not open up to her father. Consequently, the relationship between the two grew extremely distant.

Later in the poem, the father tries to connect and talk with the daughter, and she acts as though she was surprised they were even attempting to talk. The father wants to talk about “when a man is dying”—a subject that she never thought they would talk about (Gluck 319). She feels that this is at least a start for them, but she still is not sure why he wanted to talk about death. During the situation with her father, she continues to drift off and give details about the images she sees happening around her. She makes it seem that she is comparing what they are doing to what is going on around them.

Half of the poem is about the relationship between the father and daughter, while the other is about her surroundings and the scenery. She would talk with her father, and then would go into...