Spacecat
Answer each question in depth and provide specific evidence from
the text or speaker whenever available. The more you write, the better!
Title of the text: Washing the Car with My Father
S
SPEAKER:
Who is the speaker/writer?
What do we know about
them? What can you tell or
what do you know about
the speaker that helps you
understand the point of
view expressed?
P
PURPOSE:
What is the speaker/writer
hoping to accomplish?
What is the reason behind
this piece? What do they
want the audience to do
after having listened?
A
AUDIENCE:
Who is the speaker/writer
trying to reach? How do we
know? Do they indicate a
specific audience? What
assumptions exist in the
text about the intended
audience?
C
CONTEXT:
What is the time and place
of this piece? What is
happening in the world as
it relates to the subject of
the speech or the
speaker/writer?
E
EXIGENCE:
What was the spark or
catalyst that moved the
speaker/writer to
act/write? How did that
event impact the
speaker/writer?
The writer is definitely Afaa Micheal Weaver. The speaker though i'm not sure I can be
confident on, I am pretty sure it is a son but I don't know who it is. What we know
about the speaker is a son who washes his/his dad’s car on Saturdays. He also doesn't
really have a super close/ intimate relationship with his dad until they are both older.
While reading this and understanding it more and more, I feel sad for this son who
doesn't have a close enough relationship with his dad until he is about to die and a
father who doesn't have a close enough relationship with his son until he is about to
die. I think the purpose of this poem is to show a path that isn't great but easy to
follow when relationships aren't developed enough. I feel this poem shows that his
dad is concerned but never does more than that. “and in these brittle years of his old
age we grow deeper, talk way after midnight,” shows they never had a deep
relationship where they talked until now. The purpose is to show the importance of
developing relationships now instead of later because it is more beneficial the fastest
you can get there.
I think this book is trying to reach “emotionless” dads and maybe try to encourage
them to develop relationships with their sons. The dad in this story loved his son as
most fathers do, but he seemed to be kept back from ever confronting his son and just
let him follow dark paths and let himself be sad about it. The audience might also be
about encouraging sons to pursue relationships with their fathers because it shows
how nice it was at the end. This text makes me assume these people are the audience
because it is discussing problems they would face, so it would make sense that the
purpose and takeaway would also be about and for them.
The time within the piece is modern, I can tell because it addresses more modern
situations and problems. The poem though shifts through times and it goes from like
early teens to early 20s to later(?) of a son. I believe this because the situation of the
father changes: “my father standing at the gate, poor and proud, tall and stout, a wise
man” then “a man troubled by a son gone missing” then “walks up the stairs with the
aluminum crutch” and then him eventually ending in a hospital bed. This shows how
looking back on life it seemed to have gone too fast with every period of time in the
poem switching between only just stanzas.
I can assume from reading this that the author did not have the most close
relationship with his own father and maybe when his dad died he realized how much
he wished he had had a closer relationship with his father. I don’t know much about
the author except that he had his own baby son that died, I feel this is something you
want me to bring up since you brought it up as a backstory for him so I'm going to
acknowledge it here but I just don’t see something like that influencing a poem like
this. Those two different types of relationships even though they were both son and
father, are just too distant especially when looking at it through the theme I believe
the poem is giving.
C
CHOICES:
What are the rhetorical
choices that the
speaker/writer makes in
the speech? Think about
overall structure, devices,
diction, syntax, etc.
A
APPEALS:
Which of the three
rhetorical appeals (ethos,
logos, pathos) are present
in the text? Where? Why?
T
TONE:
What is the
speaker/author's attitude
toward the subject? Is the
tone the same throughout
the whole piece? Where
does it shift? What
evidence is there to
demonstrate the tone?
I also kind of talked about this in context but the way that it is worded with it reading
from the father and his thoughts but each containing instances showing this is at a
later time and later time. “my father standing at the gate, poor and proud, tall and
stout, a wise man” then “a man troubled by a son gone missing” then “walks up the
stairs with the aluminum crutch” and then him eventually ending in a hospital bed. I
feel this shows the changing time but the unchanging relationship.
I also think the use of always having the theme of a car there adds consistency and
grip (kind of I guess) to the poem. Especially the almost same words at the end and
beginning: “It is the twilight blue Chevrolet,” and then “as we wash the twilight blue
Chevrolet.” It is a cool parallel.
I think the only present appeal is pathos. The whole poem is about a relationship
between a father and son which is already pretty emotional but in addition to this the
theme and purpose is emotional. Some specific parts that I feel are heavy and deep
are: “a man troubled by a son gone missing”, it's very uncomfortable because it is sad
and really drives the purpose of the importance of developing relationships. “Years
later I tell him the stories of what his brother-in-law did to me, and he wipes a tear
from the corner of his eye” I feel this is probably one of the only times the father has
shown emotion in front of his son but it's much later and life and too late, again
showing the importance of not being afraid to develop relationships and doing it as
soon as possible.
The tone in this poem seems very distant, especially at the beginning and I think this
was purposeful as it really conveys the relationship between father and son. There is a
very big tone shift at the end of the third stanza: “Years later I tell him the stories
of what his brother-in-law did to me,” This whole poem talks of kind of dark
subjects
especially in the two middle stanzas but this stands out because it is a place
where there is now finally a deep emotional connection between the son and
father.
Washing the Car with My Father
BY AFAA MICHAEL WEAVER

It is the twilight blue Chevrolet,

four doors with no power but the engine,
whitewall tires, no padding on the dashboard,
the car I drive on dates, park on dark lanes
to ask for a kiss, now my hand goes along
the fender, wiping every spot, the suds
in the bucket, my father standing at the gate,
poor and proud, tall and stout, a wise man,

a man troubled by a son gone missing

in the head, drag racing his only car
at night, traveling with hoodlums to leave
the books for street life, naming mentors
the men who pack guns and knives, a son
gone missing from all the biblical truth,
ten talents, prophecies, burning bushes,
dirty cars washed on Saturday morning.

He tells me not to miss a spot, to open

the hood when I'm done so he can check
the oil, the vital thing like blood, blood
of kinship, blood spilled in the streets
of Baltimore, blood oozing from the soul
of a son walking prodigal paths leading
to gutters. Years later I tell him the stories
of what his brother-in-law did to me, and

he wipes a tear from the corner of his eye,

wraps it in a white handkerchief for church,
walks up the stairs with the aluminum
crutch to scream at the feet of black Jesus
and in these brittle years of his old age we
grow deeper, talk way after midnight,
peeping over the rail of his hospital bed
as we wash the twilight blue Chevrolet.

Afaa Michael Weaver, "Washing the Car with My Father" from The Government of Nature. Copyright © 2013 by Afaa Michael Weaver. Reprinted by permission of
University of Pittsburgh Press.

Source: The Government of Nature (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2013)