Living the American Dream inside "The Cage"

Firstly, this poem deals with an Irish immigrant who came to America to work, but he is obviously in horrible working conditions; the author writes "My Father the least happy man I known". I think this sort of resembles the George Moore story. Though America is thought of to be this wonderful, beautiful place, there is always this sort of paradox of the American Dream in Irish writing. think this is the Irish writers saying be content with your own Country. This poem deals with that image greatly, especially when he refers to it as "the lost years". Because the poet reveals to us this image, we understand that the lost years are something important. Possibly, it could be the years spent in America or the years spent working such a horrible job.

Another important thing that I notice was the tone, in particular the father-son relationship. The son seems to be angry or at least not pleased with his father's choices. The tone suggest that maybe the two weren't close and evidence for this is the fact that the language seems to separate the father and the sun. For this poem to be about family, pronouns 'we' or 'us' are not used, but it is always 'he'. Another thing to look at is what the author titles the poem: The Cage. For a poem to be about his father, and to name it the cage, it is suggesting animal-like behavior, or at least an animalistic environment. In the authors simple description of his father, he chooses to describe his father as an pale, underground worker, which I believe hints at the animalistic environment, or even the culture.

This poem deals with stereotypes as well. The author refers to his father as a traditional Irishmen, and in turn is saying that traditional Irish people drink and are drunks. With this, I do not believe that he is being 'honest'. Obviously, the author does not like America, which means that he has to like Ireland. Therefore, I think the author is now dealing with his father's drinking habit, but he isn't comfortable talking about it, so he is stereotyping and being sarcastic as a way to bring it up.