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Parenting through the eyes of Literature A person may never know what a parent goes through until he/she actually becomes one. It is sometimes easier to understand issues of parenting when expressed by a well-known author. There are three literary works that I have read recently that deal with parenting in such a way that you do not even need to be a parent, yourself, to actually understand what the authors are trying to convey. Naomi Long Madgett, Tille Olsen, and Alice Walker are all very popular, distinguished authors, and one thing that they all share is their interpretation of parenting within their works. In Naomi Long Madgett's poem "Offspring," Madgett gives an approach to parenting through what seems to be a personal experience. "Born of my trunk and strengthened by my roots, / you must stretch new grown branches/ closer to the sun/ than I can reach" (lines 3-6). In these lines she begins to talk about wanting better for her daughter than what she had in her life, which is a common parenting mannerism. Parenting mannerisms are very critical when an author actually writes about their real life situations because it is hard to be judgmental of the work because you are being judgmental of the author's life or of the a