Grace Paley's A Conversation With My Father

"A Conversation with My Father" by Grace Paley is a worthy addition to the reading list. Paley's short story, published in 1974, criticizes the American public through addressing the consequences of ineffective communication, which result from the inability to understand differences in perception. Also known as the false-consensus effect, a cognitive bias. Within the decade of publication, America was bloated with conflict, both externally and internally. Growing tension between the people and government regarding the proper role of a democratic institution led to widespread protests, specifically pertaining to the Vietnam War and the threat of nuclear warfare. Paley, a social activist, addressed the social and political disparity through a unique, yet familiar and understandable …show more content…
The larger social and moral issues in which she breaks down into realistic, every-day situations reveals, in this case, how we allow our biases, prejudices, and perceptions to impact our ability to effectively compromise. In "A Conversation with My Father," Paley makes the connection through a disagreement between a father and daughter over the perfect story synonymous to that of the divergence in perception between protestors and the government's on what is ethical. The clash between conformity and individuality, characteristics of American culture in the 1960-1970s, is an underlying element in Paley's work as shown by the generational gap. In contrast to other works on the syllabus; although it was written over forty years ago, her work is just as pertinent today as it was in the 1970s, which is unlike several of the post-modernist works on the syllabus. Many of the others works depreciated until salvaged in the scrap yard of the forgotten generation; whereas, Paley's work becomes perpetual. Many examples exist today, a few being abortion, immigration policies, wage equality,