Daddy, Quote Bank

‘Black shoe/In which I have lived like a foot’

Simile

• highlights the speaker’s toxic relationship with her father

• she lives her life under his rule

• foot inside a tight shoe is hidden away and confined

• no room to grow freely

• highlights the struggle of breaking free from oppression

• allows us to understand her suffering

‘For thirty years, poor and white’

Diction

• illustrates her hardship and discomfort

• entrapment and living conditions

• quality of life

• poor invites feelings of pity

• white comes with connotations of illness and innocence

• she lived poorly, was malnourished and not like normal healthy people

• continued suffering for 30 years

• shows us how she views herself

‘Barely daring to breathe or achoo’

 Diction

• showcases fear

• scared to express herself

• human processes yet she fears to carry them out

• in a state of constant caution/fear

• scared to make her presence known

• lived her life under oppression and fear, suppressing her natural bodily functions

‘At twenty I tried to die/And get back, back, back to you’

Repetition

• tried to reconnect with her father even after his death

• repetition shows her deep longing - like a cry

• shows the range of emotions shes feeling - difficulty of grief

• wanting freedom but still craving the familiarity

‘I made a model of you/A man in black with a Meinkampf look’

Metaphor

• ‘Meinkampf’ - reference to Hitler

• ‘man in black’ carries connotations of danger, authority

• is aware of her fathers scary nature but still looks for him in others

• still entrapped by her fathers memory

• he haunts her subconcious

• she still wishes for his return