Free English Language Dissertations - Harrison’s Father Appears To Speak With Negative Emotions, Applying To Rough
Harrison’s father appears to speak with negative emotions, applying to rough words that are characteristic to the working-class speech: You’re supposed to be the bright boy at description / and you can’t them what the fuck to put! (Harrison, 1988, p.1481). The father utilises such ways of expression, as he is not aware of other ways, but Harrison, whose language is different, refuses to maintain the negative emotions and language of his father, and he answers in a calm voice: I’ve got to find the right words on my own (Harrison, 1988, p.1481). Thus, the son makes an attempt to communicate with the father, but the son’s education prevents him from understanding and supporting the father. Tony Harrison distances himself from his family, although he reveals much concern towards the working-class society. In Book Ends and other poems Harrison depicts that the conflicts between him and his parents are inspired by this working class. According to Kelleher (1996), Harrison is a poet who opens the case of British class conflict into other geopolitical areas; and returns a whole range of concerns that might have been considered extraneous to class politics back to class (p.43). Harrison applies to ironic language, when he discusses the reasons for the separation of the father and the son: what’s still between’s not the thirty years or so, but books, books, books (Harrison, 1988, p.1481).
Although Harrison admires father’s love towards his mother and realises that no words can really express this powerful love, he nevertheless criticises his father for his poor language that does not allow him to reveal his feelings. On the other hand, the poet feels that his knowledge and profession create a sense of alienation and loneliness in him and that language is still limited, because it is not able to embody the subtlety of human emotions and recollections. In the poem Long Distance Harrison continues to demonstrate the conflicts between the father and the son, applying to two different ways of expressions, that is, Standard English utilised by the son and Yorkshire colloquial language maintained by the father. Contrasting these languages, Tony Harrison reveals rather complex language and emotional differences between two persons. However, in the poem the son utilises one word ‘Mam’ that shows an implicit connection between the son and the father, because this dialect word proves that the son is unable to fully reject his social background and continues to utilise colloquial speech. This small word brings two different personalities together, even though they are unable to come to terms with each other.
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