Perspectives on the Past in Carver's "Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-second Year" and Ruth Fainlight's "Friends' Photos" Anonymous 12th Grade

'Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year' and 'Friends' Photos' both reminisce and compare the past with the memory and newfound perspective that their speakers have gained from the present with photographs as a medium. However, while 'Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year' looks upon the memory of his father in a distant, straightforward and somewhat bleak manner, 'Friends' Photos' glorifies and views the memory of the speaker and her friends in a nostalgic and romanticized way. The new ideas on the past, derived from their present understanding, is contrasted in disapproval and nostalgia, where 'Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year' reveals the flatness of what is portrayed and 'Friends' Photos' misses and laments the beauty of a youthfulness that was not appreciated before.

Both poems display a stark difference on the past and its reflection in the present. The past that is depicted through through the photographs looks to be ideal, where the father enjoys to "pose bluff and hearty", and the speaker's friends "looked like goddesses and gods." However, both poems cast their youth in a different light through the perspective of the present, where the last stanza abruptly reveals the darker...