What is you impression of the father in the poem The Identification by Roger McGough?

Answer 1

It is odd that the father appears to be unaffected by the potential death of his child which begs to question his relationship with the boy. His reaction to the cigarettes shows that it was likely that he was a stern father and that the relationship was potentially negative. This does not however answer why the father would show no sadness and although it could be that he is hiding his emotions and that he is portraying himself as having a hard exterior, it may be that he is in fact desperate for it not to be his son and is therefore in a state of disbelief. At the end it is apparent that he wishes to remember the boy as the obedient child that he raised him to be and does not want to put the memory of the boy into disrepair and the father therefore thinks the best of his son and that he was being a good friend instead of a rebellious teenager.