Looking Ahead

In the poem, "A Story," by Li-Young Lee, the author uses foreshadowing and irony to develop the central tension of the rough relationship between a father and his son. In the story, the father "lives far ahead, he sees the day this boy will go. Don't go! Hear the alligator story...the spider story...Let me tell it!" The father is looking into the future with regret of the times that he did not read to his son, and is now begging for his son to come back. Lee uses irony by saying, "In a room full of books, in a world full of stories, he can recall not one..." This is ironic because the father can never think of a single story to tell his son, but there is a room full of stories that the father could just read to his son. Overall, through the use of foreshadowing and irony the author is able to depict the bad relationship between the father and the son, which is the central tension of the poem.