"He only had to look at me..." (36)

“He only had to look at me to want to hit me good and plenty.” (36)

This quote comes from the beginning of chapter nine where the narrator first introduces the father as a character. Meridel Le Sueur makes it pretty clear in the few lines before that there is an uneasy relationship between the narrator’s family and the father, yet this quote is still used to show just how poor their relationship is. Her father mentions in his letter that he had sacrificed the best years of his life for the family and that he feels left behind. This quote on page 36 also seems to exemplify his feelings of betrayal from the family.

Later on in the same chapter, the narrator also mentions different ways in which she and her mother look down upon the father. An example of this includes the last few lines on page 38 where the narrator mocks her father’s intelligence and says, “He never went beyond sixth grade. He could yell at you like a terrible oath.” Another example of this is when the narrator looks back on the time when her father trades their nice home in the city for a farm in Wisconsin they know nothing about. The quote I have chosen on page 36 seems to fit into all of this because it shows that the uneasy feelings are mutual between the narrator and her father. The condescending attitude is not one sided as the narrator and her father both have some issues against each other.