Some say “home is where the bosom is. ” Home can be everything to some. Home is their safe comfort topographic point they have in life. Home determines a sense of one’s individuality. One verse form called “The Youngest Daughter” by Cathy Song involves characters sing conflicting state of affairss between the demands of their place and individuality. One might believe that this verse form is merely about female parents versus girls ; nevertheless. this verse form evokes a broader sense significance that girls are torn between either drawing off or drawing closer to place.

In one sense. the girl in this verse form is frustrated with her current state of affairs and aspires to make more with her life. instead than give her clip making what her female parent thinks she should be making. Despite this feeling. she knows she should be caring for her ill female parent. The function she has in her place has conflicting messages. Using the elements of tone. narrative verse form. and word pick. the verse form can be explicated to demo how it creates and resolves the significance of struggle between female parents and girls. “The Youngest Daughter” utilizes the narrative type verse form. which helps create and decide the struggle in the verse form.

The chief struggle in this verse form is that the girl has to take between duties and desires. while happening her ain function in her place. A narrative verse form tells a narrative. and this verse form tells a narrative about a girl taking attention of her aged female parent. The verse form is about what the daughter’s day-to-day life is like. This shows the “obligations” portion of her life. The first sentence of the verse form is “the sky has been dark for many old ages. ” This implies that everything that has been traveling on with her taking attention of her female parent has been traveling on for many old ages.

Since her female parent became ill. it has been the daughter’s duty to take attention of her. This duty is based on cultural outlooks. In many civilizations. kids are expected to take attention of their parents once they age. The verse form is organized into stanzas that are associated with a certain portion of the narrative. One stanza describes what has been traveling on recently. Another is about “this forenoon. ” The last stanza is about what goes on “in the afternoons. ” Through the narrative type verse form. the girl is able to show the feeling that her individuality is fundamentally taking attention of her female parent.

This individuality is besides her function in the household. This function limits her ain self-identity. Because she is busy caring for her female parent. she is unable to develop a sense of ego. She is lacerate between two things: turning off from her female parent. and drawing closer to her female parent. She knows she has to take attention of her. so that facet makes her seem to draw closer to her female parent. Contrary to that. this girl is a adult adult female. and she has a really limited and conflicted life. Her life is devoted to the female parent. This is seen by the narrative of the verse form.

She wants to turn apart from her female parent and do things in her life that involvement her. The reader can see that the girl wants to get away this whole state of affairs because towards the terminal of the verse form it says “She knows I am non to be trusted / even now be aftering my flight. ” The readers learn here that the female parent doesn’t trust the girl. for grounds unknown. The 2nd line of the above quotation mark shows the readers that this is what the girl is presently making to do her female parent non trust her.

The girl besides desires that her mother’s wellness improve. because in the verse form is says “As I toast to her wellness. Love and commiseration toward her aging female parent clang with the feelings of bitterness and entrapment of herself. “The Youngest Daughter” uses word pick to demo the struggle of female parents versus girls. and the daughter’s internal struggle of duties and desires. The girl uses in-between enunciation to demo her emotions. Like noted in a old paragraph. the first sentence of the verse form is “the sky has been dark for many old ages. ” This shows that the girl has been covering with her mother’s unwellness for rather some clip. and she hasn’t been able to see the Sun.

She hasn’t been able to make what she wants to make because she has been so overwhelmed with taking attention of the female parent and carry throughing her duties. When depicting the female parent. the girl says “her external respiration was graveled / her voice gruff with fondness. ” The word pick of graveled and gruff is interesting. This demonstrates the attempt required to take a breath and be fond. It’s about as if the author of the verse form wanted the readers to hear what her external respiration and voice sounded like by including those two words in at that place.

This implies in a manner that the female parent has an sentiment with the state of affairs excessively. These two words make these two lines more effectual. The girl says “I was about stamp / when I came to the bluish contusions. ” This shows that the girl feels sorry for what the female parent has to travel through. Tender is another interesting word pick. The verse form besides says “I soaped her slowly. ” intending that the girl takes her clip when rinsing her female parent. because her life has been accustomed to nil. Another facet of duties is that the girl says “I scrubbed them with a rancid gustatory sensation in my oral cavity.

The girl evidently doesn’t want to scour the female parent. but it is duty. her responsibility. so she must. Using the sentence “We eat in the familiar silence” shows that there is tenseness between them. because if there was no tenseness. they would be speaking when they are eating. Despite this tenseness. this still occurs each twenty-four hours. and they continue to follow the same modus operandi. If this line merely had said “We eat in silence. ” it would hold a much lesser consequence on the verse form as a whole. By adding the word “familiar. ” it allows the reader to understand that eating that manner is a commonalty and portion of a consistent modus operandi.

The words “familiar silence” contrast each other. Familiar is something that has occurred so frequently that it becomes accustomed. And what is familiar in this verse form? Silence. Silence. though it means quiet. is basically nil. Quietness. or nil. has occurred so much that it is accustomed. The word pick is contrasting duties with desires. The girl is obligated to care for her female parent. This is apparent throughout the full verse form when the girl describes everything she does for her female parent.

Despite this. she desires to make something different than merely entirely attention for her female parent. This desire is apparent when the verse form says “She know I am non to be trusted / even now be aftering my flight. ” The girl wants to get away. and the female parent is cognizant of it. This contrast between duties and desires makes the reader of the verse form feel that this is an either/or state of affairs. The girl can either take attention of the female parent. or she can travel off on her ain. The last two lines of the verse form are really meaningful: “A thousand Cranes curtain the window / fly up in a sudden zephyr. These word picks are effectual because the words allow the readers to see an stoping image.

It seems like the Cranes winging off is associated with the girl being set free and get awaying her life. It’s dry how the first line of the verse form uses words that talk about the sky. and in the last few lines of the verse form the Cranes fly into the sky. This line is used as a manner for the writer of the verse form to demo that the declaration has occurred. By the terminal of the verse form. the struggle of duties versus desires is resolved.

One of the last lines of the verse form says “As I toast to her wellness. This shows that the girl eventually realizes that caring for her female parent is what’s best for her at this minute. By crispening for her wellness. she reveals that even though she is ill of caring for her female parent. she would instead care for her female parent than have her female parent be dead. The girl realizes that there will finally be a clip when the female parent dies. and at that clip the girl will be able to make whatever she desires. but right now. her focal point needs to be on her female parent. The Cranes winging into the sky reiterates this fact.

When this clip comes. even though the girl will be able to make what she wants. she will be without a female parent. She will hold no duties. which in a sense is good for her. because she will be able to make what she wants. yet a portion of her life will be losing. Death is ever difficult to cover with. and even though in the verse form she talks about how she wants to get away. in world she truly would lose her female parent. The tone is this verse form is bittersweet and affectionate ; kids should care for their ageing parents. yet kids need to populate their ain lives.

In a manner. the tone is besides both happy and sad. The manner the tone alterations correlated with both of the conflicting sides of the verse form. It’s happy in the manner that the poet shows that there is fondness and love between female parents and girls. yet it is sad in the manner that it shows that sometimes conflicts arise between female parents and girls. This besides explains how it is bittersweet. The tone shows that there are moral ties between kids and their parents. These moral ties tie in with the obligational portion of the struggle.

Morally. the girl feels obliged to care for her female parent. The talker is the youngest girl of a household. and her responsibility is to take attention of her aging parent. As one can see. looking at a verse form through elements can assist a reader understand the significance of it. In “The Youngest Daughter. ” the verse form creates the significance of struggle between female parents and girls related to the girl either drawing closer or drawing off from household and holding to take between duties and desires. The elements of tone. word pick. and narrative verse form together efficaciously make this significance.

In this verse form. the place determines one’s individuality. The girl is conflicted between either drawing closer to her place life and her female parent. or drawing off from it all and traveling after her ain aspirations. Readers can associate to this verse form because many people go through the same quandary in life: taking attention of an ageing parent. Peoples do it because they love their household. Even though this girl is holding conflicting feelings about taking attention of her female parent. she does it anyways because household ever comes foremost.