A Conversation with My Father
What is the main conflict in A Conversation with My Father by Grace Paley?
![](https://d22o6al7s0pvzr.cloudfront.net/images/bookrags/qa/avatars/School/Stack_of_Books.png)
Asked by
bookragstutor
Last updated by
Cat
On one level, the story is about women's relationships with then-fathers and sons. Paley recounts a visit between a middle-aged woman and her elderly, bedridden father, who suffers from heart disease. The father reproaches his daughter, a writer, for not constructing straightforward narratives. He encourages her to emulate the nineteenth-century writers Anton Chekhov and Guy de Maupassant, who wrote sparsely realistic tragedies. The daughter attempts to do so, telling him a story about some neighbors, a drug-addicted mother and son. She does not write a tragic ending, but ultimately both mother and son overcome their addictions.