HIALH Task III Essay

Comp 4

All over the world, fathers and daughters have different relationships. Some good, some bad, some close, some not so close, some with great communication, some with poor communication. There is no real way to put father and daughter relationships into categories being that there are so many different types of them. "No More Lollipops" and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter establishes two of these father-daughter relationships. In "No More Lollipops," the author, Debra Adams, writes about how she was always daddy's little girl when she was a young child. However, as she got older, she was no longer treated as a little girl. She knew, however, that she would always, somehow, be daddy's little girl. In The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, by Carson McCullers, Mick and her father never had as close of a relationship as Debra had with her father. Mick never considered herself to be daddy's little girl. Even though they are two very different relationships, one relationship is not better than the other.
             In "No More Lollipops", Debra had a very close relationship with her father when she was a little girl. They joked around quite often, went on "trips to Jack-in-the-Box on the way to kindergarten" (30), and he gave her presents, such as toys and lollipops. However, Debra eventually reached the age where she was too old to be her daddy's little girl anymore. "It was time for me to stop tugging on his trousers, stop sitting on his lap, stop crying to him when I skinned my knee or didn't get my way." She had to grow up and become her own person and live life for herself, despite the fact that she longed to "be daddy's little girl all over again" (31). It's always easier to rely on someone else, but everyone has to grow up at some time, and Debra realized that. Her father also realized this, and Debra knew that he realized it when things that had happened in the past no longer occurred. She wrote, "From him, no more hugs, no more kisses, no more pride in his voice when he introduced me to clients of temple members while I shyly hid behind a leg" (30). Although Debra and her father may have rather had their "daddy's little girl" relationship back, they both accepted that it was simply not possible because, "naturally there comes a time in your life, in everyone's life, when you must become your own person. You have to stop holding onto the past and grow up" (31). Mick Kelly, however, had a completely different relationship with her father.
Unlike Debra, Mick Kelly never considered herself as being daddy's little girl. She was very independent and didn't need his help with most things. She was never too close with her father, yet didn't have the desire to be.  However, even though she was not very close with him, she did have a great deal of respect for him. "But most of the time if anybody called her she just ran away like she hadn't heard. That went for everybody except her dad. There was something about her dad's voice that she couldn't run away from…no matter how much of a hurry she was in, she always had to stop when her dad called" (83). Mick's dad is one of the only people she will listen to. Mick and her father didn't really have a "normal" father-daughter relationship. He would almost bribe her to talk to him by giving her money. He felt that this was the only way to make Mick stay and talk to him. However, Mick did not feel the same way. "He didn't have to give her any nickel or dime just because he was lonesome and wanted to talk" (84). Contrary to Debra’s father, Mick’s father began to want a relationship with his daughter when she was already a teenager. At that point in Debra’s life, her and her father’s close relationship had already declined from when she was a child. In fact, Mick’s relationship with her dad is almost the exact opposite of Debra’s relationship of her dad. Debra felt that she needed to hold on to the relationship she had with her father for longer than she could. Out of her and her dad, she wanted the relationship more. But in Mick’s case, her father was the one who wanted the father-daughter relationship so badly. "He was lonesome and he was an old man. Because none of the kids went to him for anything and because he didn’t earn much money he felt like he was cut off from the family. And in his lonesomeness he wanted to be close to one of his kids—and they were all so busy that they didn’t know it" (85).

There are many different kinds of father-daughter relationships. Debra and Mick’s relationships with their father’s only portray two of them. Depending on the type of person the daughter and the father are is what determines their relationship. The relationship is also how the people are brought up, and maybe other family issues. No matter what, it’s really up to the father and daughter what kind of relationship they make for themselves.