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Thesis Statement:

Thesis Statement: In “A Story,” poet Li-Young Lee explores how, through attempts at storytelling, a father experiences the tragic yet natural chasm that reflects a parent’s inability to fulfill a child’s deepest emotional needs.

Topic Sentence 1: The father’s inability to respond to his son’s requests for a story is revealed through the imagery of the father’s gestures as he “rubs his chin, scratches his ear” and explicitly in the line “he can recall / not one.” The very first word of the poem, “Sad,” reflects that the father sees this inability as a disappointment to his son.

Topic Sentence 2:The father is afraid the boy will eventually leave him--“he thinks, the boy / will give up on his father”--which is an unavoidable fact of life that the father indeed foresees. The chasm goes from metaphorical (silence) to literal (separation).

Topic Sentence 3: The tragedy is in the father’s realization that he cannot give his son what is needed at the time: a story. As the father begins to worry about being inadequate in the present moment, he imagines trying to connect with his son in the future. The italicized lines, “Don't go! / Hear the alligator story! The angel story once more!” represent the future pleas of the father, imagining that he will want to tell his son stories but the son won’t want that because what the son will need at that time is to leave and go out on his own.

Topic Sentence 4: The last two lines, “a boy’s supplications / and a father’s love add up to silence” suggest that the father is aware that he cannot fulfill his son’s deepest emotional needs even though he loves him.

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