Drinking has and will always influence people, for better or worse. Alcohol clearly influenced Theodore Roethke's poem "My Papa's Waltz." In his poem there are two main characters as well as a largely anonymous third party. Theodore, a teenager, dances with his drunken father while his biological mother watches with apprehension. The characters represent a past memory from Roethke's childhood. In his memories, Roethke's father comes home drunk after a hard day at work. The young boy and his father decide to participate in a little dance. As they waltz, the two men become a little rowdy with each other. As a result, some people view this poem with a disdainful perception and assume that Theodore wrote the poem with dark thoughts in mind. On the contrary, despite his father's drunkenness, young Theodore enjoyed every second of it. There is a strong bond between them that a careful examination allows us to clearly understand in the poem “My Father's Waltz”. In the poem, the act of “waltzing” symbolizes love, but not without some conflict. “Such a waltz was not easy” (Roethke p. 602, 4)....