"Photograph of My Father In His Twenty Second Year" by Raymond Carver

Raymond Carver's poem "Photograph of My Father In His Twenty Second Year" presents the theme of appearances versus reality. The father in the poem tries his best to appear confident and bold in the picture. For example, lines 4 through 5 state, "...he holds in one hand a string of spiny yellow perch, in the other a bottle of Carlsbad Beer." This shows the father's effort to appear manly and bold, since both fishing and drinking beer are popularly viewed as evoking such. Other words and phrases that suggest the father's bold and cool front are "leans against the front fender of a 1934 Ford" (lines 6 through 7), "pose bluff and hearty for his posterity" (line 8), and "old hat cocked over his ear" (line 9). All of these make the father appear confident. On the contrary, the narrator viewing the picture reads between the lines. The narrator sees that the father is not truly confident or manly. The narrator sees the father's "eyes that give him away" (line 11) and his "hands that limply offer the string of dead perch and the bottle of beer" (lines 11-12). These phrases prove that inwardly the father is not as bold as his appearance suggests he is. In other words, he is not acting himself but is pretending to be someone he isn't. The last line of the poem shows that the narrator consequently suffers from his father's lack of confidence and manliness. Since the narrator never had a tough, fatherly figure in his life, as the photograph would otherwise suggest, the narrator never took part in typical "father-son" activities. The narrator therefore was never taught these activities and was forced to lead the same life the father did when young. A couple words stuck out in this poem, particularly "sheepish" in line 3 and "cocked" in line 9. Sheepish could mean either bashful or docile. This could serve to further confirm the theme of appearances versus reality, showing that inwardly the father was bashful, while outwardly he appeared calm and casual. Cocked sounds similar to cocky. This could suggest the father's willingness to appear self-satisfied. His appearance clearly suggests he has an ego, when in reality he does not. Lastly, the choppiness of the first line suggests a dissatisfaction and willingness to want more. The setting presented also suggests a sour tone. Describing it as an "unfamiliar kitchen" additionally suggests something unusual about the picture, particularly the father's bold appearance that contrasts with what the narrator knows to be true.