Thus while the father is meant to be resting from a difficult work week, he is instead caring for his family.

It is important to note the two places in the poem where the reader can see that the narrator has the benefit of hindsight in evaluating his father's good deeds. The first is at the end of the first stanza, where the narrator states "No one ever thanked him" (Hayden). The narrator now recognizes the flaws in his own actions. Yet it is not simply "I never thanked him," but "No one." The narrator recognizes that there was not only a flaw in their relationship, but in the way his father was treated by his family as a whole, and perhaps the world. The poem as a whole sets a tone of lower- or working-class people (the reference to hands weary from labor provides the best clue) who struggle,...
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