Perspectives
Part of the analysis of a literary text like “The Parents” by Kelly Cherry involves looking at the text in perspective, being able to connect it with current issues, literary period and similar works.
Current issues
Published in the 1990s, “The Parents” by Kelly Cherry is still relevant today because it tackles universal issues like parenthood and the cycle of life. Like in the story, parents will always experience a range of feelings and attitudes toward their children growing up and the experience of getting old themselves.
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Literary period and genre
“The Parents” is a postmodern text which belongs to the genre of prose poetry. Prose poetry is part of Postmodernism, a literary movement which is a reaction to modernism, defined by elements like fragmentation (the events are not chronological), meta-fiction (fiction about fiction), ...
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Works with the same theme
We encourage you to explore the theme of parenthood in other literary texts. For instance, the short story “Your Shoes” by Michèle Roberts (Texting – 1st Year Fiction, pp. 28) presents the perspective of a mother on parenthood. Her perspective is developed both in relation to her missing daughter and to the woman’s parents.
The story “Super-Toys Last All Summer Long” (1968) by Brian Aldiss explores parenthood in ...
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