Already we have seen that the speaker has a very different Sunday experience than his father does, but these lines really start to bring this idea home.
We can think of these “chronic angers” in two ways. First, we can interpret them as referring to the people in the house being angry.
The other option is to think of the house itself as being angry. If that's the case, then Hayden's giving us a little dose of personification, because he's saying the house has human feelings. It’s possible that the whole atmosphere is so soaked with anger that the speaker feels it coming through the walls. That means they've been around a while, and they're not going away anytime soon.
And "chronic" is an odd word choice. Usually when we hear the word chronic, we think of …show more content…
Perhaps his parents were in an unhappy marriage, or perhaps they struggled financially. The only thing that’s clear is that it was an unhappy household.
In this line, we learn that he speaks “indifferently” to his good old dad. We could even say that he’s “cold” to his dad, cold as an icy winter morning. The speaker is acting like the weather to his poor old dad. Maybe our speaker keeps his distance from his old man because they have a tense, angry relationship.
The fire shoots out cold, just as love conquers indifference. The fire that the father builds is both a literal and symbolic act of love. Getting up in the cold to warm your family requires disinterested love. As a representation of warmth, joy and community, the fire is also a symbolic reminder that the speaker's home was full of love.
The external cold of winter symbolizes the coldness in the relationship of the son with his father. As a child, the speaker does not recognize the love of his father because it does not take the form of words of joy and love. The cold interior of the house suggests that the family struggles to express