Paley uses words that symbolize a patriarch when she introduces the father to the reader. Within the first paragraph Paley uses words like “motor” (26) and “brainy light” (26). A motor is a device that controls something. The word motor is used to describe the father’s heart which in turn can lead the reader to believe the father is controlling. Brainy can be thought of as someone who is smarter than someone else; someone who is at the top of the class. Light is interpreted as a positive word when one compares it to the word dark. The words brainy light are describing the father’s heart flooding “his head with brainy light” (26). This can be interpreted as the father being at the top of the family.
“I would like you to write a simple story just once more…the kind Maupassant wrote, or Chekhov, the kind you used to write” (26). The father has just made a last request for his daughter to write like a man. The daughter can not remember ever writing the way her father would like her to write. The father has a certain power over his daughter which drives her to fulfill his one last request. He does not accept the story she presents him with because it is not the way the male writers would write. He says to her, “you left everything out. Turgenev wouldn’t do that. Chekhov wouldn’t do that” (27). The father displays patriarchic principles by comparing his daughter to male writers. A female will undoubtedly write differently than a male, but, because the father holds such a powerful spot in his relationship with his daughter, she tries to write the way he would like her to write.
Patriarchic ideas are seen in Paley’s story when the father tells his daughter how to write. He does not enjoy the first story she wrote at his request and he begins to suggest how she should write. He tells her she should include “looks for instance” (27) and she should include a background of her characters lives. The father uses strong language which can also be interpreted as powerful language. For example, he says “it’s all a joke to you” (27), “you left everything out” (27), and “for godsakes, doesn’t anyone in your stories get married?” (27). After discussing how poor the daughters first attempt to write a story for her father is, he demands her to “Start again. It so happens I’m not going out this evening. Tell the story again” (28). This language is very demanding and portrays a patriarchic way of speaking to someone. The daughter uses language that shows the reader the father has gone through this routine before. When her father shows dissatisfaction with the first story, she says to him “what have I left out now? In this one?” (27). The word “now” shows that this is not the first time the father has found fault with the daughter’s writing. The father continues to complain about everything his daughter has done wrong in her story. She obeys his complaints while she writes her second version of the story. The daughter gives her characters more detail and a background to their lives, just as her father told her to. The father is a patriarch because he had the ability to make his daughter change her style of writing, which shows that he has authority over his daughter.
The daughter promised her family to always let her father have the last word when arguing (30). This is a powerful privilege for one to have. Being able to get the last word in during an argument is like winning the argument. To win is to be at the top and be the most powerful. The father is guaranteed to be at the top and to be the most powerful when he has an argument with his daughter, which puts him into a patriarchal position. The daughter has fulfilled this promise to her family and she allows her father to get the last word in two different instances. The first time she lets him have the last word is after he has complained about her second story. They end their argument for a moment and she writes an ending she thinks he may like although he has not asked her to write the story again. The second instance is when Paley’s story ends. The father is still upset with his daughter’s writing and does not like her new ending, but nothing is said after he asks her “When will you look it in the face?” (30). Having the advantage of always getting in the last word assists the father in gaining more control over the family.
The father in this story mimics a patriarch because the father patronizes the daughters writing and tells her how to write. The father mirrors patriarchic qualities by making demands for his daughter to write the story over again.
