© Chris Port
Central School of Speech and Drama, 1998
Aims
- To enable students to explore identity in terms of the relationship between parents and children.
- 5.1: Letter Father to daughter
- 5.2: Background to letter (for teacher only)
- 5.3: Letters Daughters to fathers (for teacher only)
- Drama student response 1 of 2
- Drama student response 2 of 2
- Photocopy Resource 5.1: Letter Father to daughter. One copy per student.
- Distribute photocopied resource as above. Explain that it is a genuine letter from a father to a daughter but do not yet reveal original context.
- Allow students 5 minutes to read letter by themselves.
- Ask students to propose possible backgrounds to the letter.
- Ask students to discuss the content of the letter in terms of: a) well-meant paternalism; b) sexism.
- Reveal original context of letter (see Resource 5.2: Background to letter [for teacher only]). Ask students to discuss whether this changes their original perceptions of the letter and, if so, how?
- Expand discussion to fathers in general. What makes a good father? What makes a bad father? Why might there be an absent father and what effects might this have?
- Expand discussion to mothers in general. What makes a good mother? What makes a bad mother? What differences should there be between a mother and a father? Are these differences based on sexism?
- Expand discussion.Why are there differences between the ideal and the real? What sort of things can go wrong and what solutions might there be?
* * * * * * * * * *
Please return this sheet at the end of the session.
Dear Tracy.
I find it very hard to begin this letter. The things I want to say to you can never be fully expressed in words.
I want so much to say the right things. I want to say the things that will make you understand how very much I love you. Before you were born I, like most men, wanted a son. But when I saw you for the first time, just a few minutes old, I knew I could never love a son the way I loved you. For a son grows to become a man while a daughter is always a child to be loved and cared for. More than anything I want you to know me and love me. I want the love that will grow between us to be one of understanding, just as the love that exists between your mother and I.
The next time I see you, you will be a little lady, walking and talking. Learn how to say ‘Daddy’.
I love you with all my heart.
Love,
Daddy
* * * * * * * * * *
Resource 5.2: Background to letter (for teacher only)
Resource 5.1 Letter Father to daughter is taken from Vietnam Style: Riders On The Storm (Orbis Publishing Limited, 1988, p.55)
This letter was written in Vietnam on August 11 1965 by Marine 2nd Lieutenant Tyrone Pannell. He was subsequently killed on November 30 1965 when a land mine exploded. He was 24 years old. Exactly 6 months earlier, his wife Marlene gave birth to their daughter Tracy.
* * * * * * * * * *
Resource 5.1 Letter Father to daughter was read out to the students during the original workshop programme. The students were told only that the letter was real and was from a father to a daughter. They were then asked to imagine the character of Tracy and write a response in role.
Here are two examples of some of their written responses:
* * * * * * * * * *
Dear Dad.
After years of not knowing who you are, I feel even more hurt than I did. After reading your letter after 16 years, I know sometimes I say the wrong things and hurt you but every time I think of who you are makes me want to hurt you more.
I want this letter to be our final communication as I can’t bear to write to a man who at birth said that he would always love and care for me, but when things got rough left his wife and baby for another life.
I want to love you with all my heart, but I can’t.
I’m sorry.
Bye.
* * * * * * * * * *
Dear Dad.
No matter how hard I try to love you, I just can’t. I try to love you, but when I think about the things that you did to mother and me I just lose my temper and my love turns into hatred. How can you come back into our lives and say how much you love us when you know it’s not true.
From your daughter and not your wanted son.
No comments:
Post a Comment