Resenting Time

Two literary devices that help Li-Young Lee, the author of "A Story", develope the central tension between the father and time are Imagery and Foreshadowing.

Imagery, or the visually descriptive figurative language, is not only used consistantly throughout this poem, but it's presence is used by the author to help devlope the tension between the father and time by helping the reader literally see and imagine the relationship between the two. "His five year old son waits in his lap./ Not the same story, Baba. A new one./ The man rubs his chin, scratches his ear./ In a room full of books in a world/ of stories, he can recall/ not one, and soon, he thinks, the boy/ will give up on his father." The author also uses forshadowing to describe how the father feels the son growing up and leaving. The father resents time because it is eventually going to take away his son from him. "Already the man lives far ahead, he sees/ the day this boy will go. Don't go!" The two literary devices that help the author develope the central tension between father and time are Imagery and Foreshadowing.