Of "Heritage" and "My Papa's Waltz"

The American Indian lives a life of conflicting emotion. For the Chocktaw Indian life was good on the land they inhabited, but because of the growing economy around them and the mounting pressure from white people to produce, one year of bad weather wreaked horrible destruction on the crops that ensured the Chocktaw's survival.
In "Heritage" by Linda Hogan, Hogan introduces us to her family. She uses kind language to describe how she is like each member "From my father I take his brown eyes," (7) always to juxtapose it with the harsh reality that comes from living in a desolate land, "the plague of locusts that leveled our crops," (8). In the last two stanzas Hogan places the blame for their families plight on her grandmother. Hogan's grandmother cannot handle that her granddaughter is white, "my whiteness a shame." (30) Hogan uses the imagery of chewing tobacco as a metaphor for those who lived off of the Oklahoman soil. Hogan's mother is white and so according to the grandmother Hogan is not entitled to the same rights as the Natives.
The last stanza is a tragic end to the story as the grandmother tells Hogan to leave "From my family I have learned the secrets of never having a home." (45) Hogan never demeans her family when she describes them but always follows up her memories with something that went wrong.
Another well known poet that wrote about his family often is Theodore Roethke who wrote "My Papa's Waltz." Based on Roethke's well educated background, I would expect a poem like this to reflect a very positive moment in his life. However, Roethke's father was known to be stern so it is very interesting how Roethke combines something as delightful and fleeting as the waltz with a stern gardner.
The opening stanza speaks of a rough whiskey drinking man, not the kind that would teach his son how to dance. It almost seems that the waltz is really a metaphor for Roethke trying to live up to his fathers expectations, which would not be a new concept for boys growing up with hard working fathers the midwest.
But then the next two stanzas are happy. Talking about how "the pans slid from the kitchen shelf." (6,7), makes the reader recant a happy time. Not one of dissapointment. "At every step you missed, my right ear scraped your buckle." (11,12). Roethke looks up to his dad. Everytime Dad messed up it would hurt Roethke. This places his dad in a very high place in his life.
Roethke seems to have mixed emotions when it comes to his father, as seen in the first three stanzas. The last one starts off with "You beat time on my head With a palm caked hard by dirt," (13, 14). The negative language of beat and dirt speaks of his father working Roethke hard. But in the end Roethke respected the man. "Then waltzed me off to bed Still clinging to your shirt" (15, 16).
For guys this is a poem that is easy to relate too. While we want to do a good job, we want to please our fathers too. When we mess up our fathers thump us and tell us to do a better job next time. Childhood can be likened to a dance in this way. When we do a good job, the dance is smooth. But one wrong step and we get hurt.